Addio Como; Ciao Milano

Whenever I think of Como, I think of Perry Como.

Mr. C was born in western Pennsylvania to Italian parents from southern Italy.

I was raised in eastern Pennsylvania and in my pre-teen years, I would watch The Perry Como Show every Saturday with my parents, who were not Italian.

Aside from our being from Pennsylvania, Mr. C. and I have nothing more in common other than our propensity for wearing sweaters.

And Mr. C. has nothing to do with Como, the southernmost town on Lago di Como. But I remember him, just the same. 

So back to the town of Como.

The town was founded by the Romans in 196 BC and has many structures dating back to the 12th century. It also has many modern concrete structures and hotels which gave the town, for my visit, a very gray feeling. Even with the medieval structures and a Duomo that was begun in 1396, the town, seemed lacking of any particular beauty. It took several trips into town to get a better feeling for it. 

The grayness might have been due to the late October weather. At least that is how I felt when we visited between boat transfers, for lunch, and when catching trains to Lugano and Milano. 

But there is beauty here, one just has to look for it, as evidenced by finding hidden gardens in equally hidden courtyards.

These hands mark the entrance to the Como train station.

I can tell you nothing further about them.

From Como we took a day-trip to Lugano, Switzerland on an equally gray day. I am told that the city is very beautiful, but again the weather may have dampened my photographic inspiration.

So addio Como, addio Lugano. 

We leave the lakes and head to the cosmopolitan city Milano.

Many of my friends think I have a knack for selecting beautiful hotels. Well not always. The 4**** Hotel Vittoria Milano is very pretty, just like their website shows. But it is so piccolo. 

I spend so much of my time trying to find the perfect place because as most travelers know, the hotels in Europe are small. They are not built for full-figured guys like Peter and myself. 

I chose this hotel even though small because it was a convenient walk to the Duomo. Yet aside from triping over each other in our room, the hotel, the weekend and the city were fine.

We asked the hotel to suggest a restaurant for lunch on our arrival. Without consulting us, the concierge picked up the phone, called a restaurant up the street and advised that Signore Williams was on his way. No sooner did we arrive at the door of the restaurant, it was thrown open and we were greeted by name. We were then whisked into a completely empty, but up-scale seafood restaurant and served a meal that completely blew the budget for the rest of the weekend. For those of you who know me, after the first glass of Proseco, I got right into it and had a fabulous meal. And then, some more Proseco!

So the weekend was spent exploring Milano.

Here are some of my photographic view points.

Our last meal in Milano was fantastic in a fantastic setting. I had read of a district of Milano that had canals. It is called the Navigli. The Navigli are artificial canals constructed between the 12th and 16th centuries to make the city more accessible to other towns. 

The restaurant was either the Asso di Fiori - L'osteria dei formaggi or the Acquasola. Sorry, this was in 2005. We had four appetizers for lunch. The pitcher was full of red wine! I'm lucky that the food was good because I made Peter walk all the way from the hotel through the many other districts of Milano.



But the trip was worth this one picture. One of my favorites to this day.

Perry Como would open each of his weekly shows with this little song called...

"We Get Letters".

"Letters, we get letters,

    We get stacks an' stacks of letters..."

I haven't received letters, but I have received several emails and posted messages of encouragement about Focused.

Thank you and keep them coming...they keep me motivated.

However, this will be my last blog until May. I'm off to Europe again for more photographic exploring.

Destinations: Nice, Genoa, Roma, Napoli, Salerno, Bologna and back to Nice.

Ciao! 

2 Days in October - Lago di Como

I appreciate your allowing me the detour to France, but now let's return to the excursion on Lago di Como back in October 2008. 



Other than a one-day visit to Stressa on Lago di Maggiore back in the '70's, I have never really been to lake-side locations either in the Americas or in Europe. That trip to Stressa was very beautiful and enjoyable despite being locked in our hotel room for an hour after our arrival. The hotelier had to break down the door to our room and then apologized profusely. That embarrassing situation dissuaded me from thinking of lake vacations until Peter pressed the issue.

Lago di Maggiore is the second largest of the three major lakes of northern Italy. The other two are Lago di Garda, which is the largest lake situated closer to Verona and Venice, and Lago di Como, which like Maggiore is in close proximity to Milan and in the Lombardy region.

As you now know, Peter and I vacationed in Cernobbio a small town approximately 10 minutes by boat from the town of Como, the southern-most town on Lago di Como. The ferries that service Cernobbio only provide local traffic to nearby towns. Therefore, to get to Bellagio and Varenna, two towns of interest, we first had to travel by boat to Como and then transfer to a larger boat for the one hour trip north. We spent two days exploring the lake. One beautifully sunny and the other over-cast, but which rendered delightfully moody atmospheric photographs. Now I don't want you to think we were too lazy to see the other towns on the lake, we also visited the town of Como and made a train trip from Como to Lugano in Switzerland. Photos of those I'll save for another time.

As you can see from the map, the lake trip north only makes a few stops, so it allows for a very relaxing day sitting top-side taking the air and views or sitting inside sipping a proseco. We scheduled our tips to allow us time to have lunch in Bellagio.

So enjoy the ride up and back (twice) from Como to Varenna and the sights in-between. Remember, you can make any photo larger by clicking on it.

Argegno

  Lenno

This delightful structure (I think it may be the Villa del Balbianello) just beyond the dock of Lenno caused all the photographers on board to rush to the side of the ferry. I feared we would capsize, but fortunately, this was off-season. I can only imagine what a mob-scene if would have been with a full-load of tourists.

 

This hotel is at the Lenno dock. There's a story here...I'm just not sure what it is. Project your own story :)



Bellagio

Bellagio has been a world-renown resort town on Lago di Como since the 19th century. I had originally considered taking an apartment here, but I was afraid that there would be too many tourists...which there were...and that it was too remote.



This is the apartment I was considering. Right across from the dock and next to a restaurant.



Varenna

I'm sorry the weather wasn't more pleasant when we visited this town. But because there were clouds and a light drizzle, it felt like we had the town to ourselves. I dropped Peter at a cafe while I walked about taking photos. I met him at the same cafe later where I ordered an espresso with grappa at 11:30AM. It didn't faze the waitress at all, though she may have though I was a little "pazzo". Not "pozzo", at all!





Following are some additional photos taken of unknown towns. I know where they are on the lake, I just can't tell you their names or anything about them. It was 2008 after all.

.

A walk from Nice to Villefranche-sur-mer



A Port du Nice building facade.



I had planned that my next posting would be a further exploration of Lago di Como. However, today I want to make a detour back to Nice, France. This week I was inspired by a posting on the Riviera Experience Blog entitled A Winter's Walk on St. Jean Cap Ferrat. Shelley Dobyns created this blog to promote both the town of Villefranche-sur-mer and the wonderful nearby sights and attractions and her rental business Riviera Experience. I had the pleasure of meeting Shelley last April when Peter and I rented one of her beautiful properties, but I'll share more about our stay in Villefranche at a later date. Shelley's walk around Cap Ferrat reminded me of a walk I made from the Port of Nice to Villefranche last November.



l'eglise Notre Dame du port



During my stay in Nice, I made daily trips to the port to enjoy Evelyne Nabet's singing and hospitality at Le New Eve Cafe located at 7 rue fodéré, derrière l'église Notre Dame du port (behind the port church).

Peter and I had the pleasure of hearing Evelyne la Divine, as she is affectionately referred to by her many admirers in Nice, in October 2006 when she was performing at the open-air Fête patronale de la Ville de Nice Sainte Réparate. (Festival of the patron saint of Nice).

We loved her voice. So we introduced ourselves and we were able to get a copy of Evelyne's CD Et Maintenant. When she began singing again, she dedicated the song New York, New York to us. Later, reading the CD's liner notes we discovered that Evelyne had sung for many years (15 years to be exact) in the lounge of the Hotel Meridien in Nice. 

I knew nothing more of Evelyne until I started planning for my trip to Nice this past October. I found Evelyne on Facebook and from there learned that she and her husband Max had opened Le New Eve Cafe, where she entertains nightly. I am pleased to say that I have gotten to know Evelyne well enough that I could finally tell her that I was not overly fond of New York, New York. When I am in the cafe she performs New York State of Mind to my great pleasure.

Anyway, on November 29 instead of going to the cafe, I decided to further investigate the port. What was meant to be a tour of this area ended up be a meandering 3 mile walk from Nice to Villefranche. Fortunately, the walk was mostly over a flat route but with spectacular views and ended at a bus stop in Villefranche where I quickly caught a bus back to Nice. I don't recall, but I probably ended up at Le New Eve Cafe.

I've illustrated my walk below and have marked areas that correspond to the photos taken.

My tour starts at the port. The first photo shows the west or Nice side of Basin Lympia, as the port is known. The next photo shows the east side of the port which is beneath Mont Boron and the direction of Villefranche. 

The following five photos represent the cluster of five points on the map.

After leaving the town portion of the port, I came to the Boulevard Franck Pilatte. I found a concession stand selling Pan Bagnat (a crusty pressed roll, stuffed with tuna, olives, peppers, onions, salad and olive oil). I ate my sandwich on a sun-drenched bench facing the Mediterranean Sea. After my lunch I continued my walk and came upon the legendary La Réserve an 1876 belle époque building which now houses one of Nice's finest restaurants. I have to take the reviews at face value, as I have never eaten there. Too trendy and tres cher for me. I can't find much history on the strange structures to the right of the building, but this image of an old poster shows that these may have been a gazebo and ship follie.

On the other side of La Reserve, there were fantastic rock formations. At first I didn't see how this young man had managed to find such a great vantage point. I soon found his entry and an interesting photo composition as well.

 

From this spot there was an extraordinary view of Vieux Nice, the hills above, the mountains above them and the snow-covered pre-Alps in the far distance.  

I headed up Avenue Jean Lorraine towards the Boulevard Carnot also known as the Base Corniche. This area was full of beautiful houses, like this one, that even in November were covered in blooming flowers. Don't ask...I don't know what kind; maybe bougainvilea?

At the top of the Avenue at the intersection of Boulevard Carot, this sprawling house that I believe is the Chateau de l'Anglais had the most interesting minarets. Unfortunately, the tall stone fench surrounding the property kept me from getting any better shots.

Turning right onto the Boulevard Carnot, I continued walking with the intention of stopping at the Carrefour market to find that night's dinner, but the road at this point becomes Boulevard Princess Grace de Monaco. Who could resist walking along this stretch which has wonderful sea views. As I rounded the base of Mont Boron, I began to see these views of  St.-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

Usually when taking multiple photographs during the course of a day, I instinctively know my favorite.

This was today's.

By this point I was too far from Nice to turn back and to close to Villefranche not to continue. Making the turn towards the town, I passed this interesting gate high above the harbor. I love the graphic on the stone post. On the other side of the gate there was no where to go, but down!

Coming into the final stretch, the Christmas decorations indicated the edge of the town proper and this great advertisement with cockroach parked below (I mean motor scooter of course). I would have gladly taken the scooter to get back, but just down the street was the bus stop for the return trip to Nice.

The bus ride back cost one Euro.

The walk from Nice to Villefranche was priceless!

Villefranche is beautiful and extremely photogenic. I hope you enjoy Shelley's blog and her pictures of the town and area. After we return to Lago di Como, I'll come back again to France and share my photos of Villefranche too.