LANNIELAND: September 2013

ITALY at Lago di Como (Lake Como)
September 1 - 12, 2013
A travelogue and other recollections
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Monday, September 2, 2013

The lakeside village of Santa Maria Rezzonico

It is 4:15p here. The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing the sailboats swiftly along Lake Como.

Here is our Fiat.

We did laundry. There is a washer.......and a dryer

Italian drivers are fast and Italian motorcyclists are insane. They pass even when cars are coming in the opposite direction, roaring down the center stripe in the road! The roads are also very narrow so we are talking inches of room sometimes is all they have. When we arrived Sunday, the traffic here around Lake Como was fairly busy and there were many motorcyclists routinely risking everyone's life, their own and the life of the pretty Italian girl with long flowing hair who was clinging to their back. Pretty amazing. Now that weekend is over it is much, much better.

There are many tunnels to drive through around the lake road. They have tunneled through the hillsides, underneath the homes stacked on top. The tunnels are dimly lit, so headlights are essential. We saw one old, boney man on an ancient bicycle riding on the almost nonexistent edge of the road through one of these tunnels. No helmet, of course, and a bag of fruit hanging from one handlebar. Several tunnels have nice bypass lanes for pedestrians and cyclists, but not all of them. Even so, the narrow roads here sometimes can barely fit the width of two cars, much less a cyclist too. That might account for the ambulance sirens we hear daily. Although I love to and had planned to cycle while here, I think it best not to do so.

Grocery shopping has been interesting. We found a few gluten free items at the regular market for Merle and more at the farmacia (pharmacy).

Meat labeled "coniglio naturale" in the meat counter gave us paws :-) They are rabbits.

There are little in-home grocery shops run by local families within walking distance of where we are staying and we have gotten food there a couple of times. The larger grocery, but small by American standards, is 6 km away when we need greater variety.

9:45p. We were going to hike up to an old church earlier around 5:30p but couldn't find a street that had been obvious when checking out the route on Google Earth, so we hung out in Tremezzio, ate lakeside at a restaurant and talked with a couple from New Zealand.

The church bell just rang 10p. Time to read awhile and then try to sleep. After 4 days here our bodies still don't want to hit the sack when they should.

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Our 3 story duplex villa was built in the late 1800's sometime. It has been updated with a nice kitchen and two very nice bathrooms. We are in the living room right now, reading and emailing. Two bedrooms and one of the baths are upstairs. It is owned by a couple from Germany who rent it out when they are not visiting Italy. I found it on the VRBO website. Vacation Rental By Owner.

The ground floor kitchen

The storage room next to the kitchen

A view from the upstairs bedroom balcony

During our evening walk, we wind through narrow rock walled passages that are everywhere and tall villas with terracotta roof tiles. Many are very old and others look quite new. Waterfalls tumble down little valleys between various homes. We are in the pre-Alps area and so there is a lot of water flowing from the mountain tops.

We visited an old cemetery at the bottom of our mountain yesterday next to the very old Catholic Church. Each grave has a little lantern on it. Some use a small solar panel instead of being wired to electricity to power the light at night. There are very large family crypts also. The church bell rings every hour and half hour throughout the day but stops at 10p each evening.

Solar panel with light in lower right hand corner

Two of several large family crypts

After lunch today we hiked a steep cobblestone pathway to an old church. On the way up there were several small chapels and in each one a scene from the last hours of Christ was depicted in life sized sculpture. They were in pretty bad condition and are being restored. You can see patches on them where some of the paint has come off or where there are cracks.

There was a little restaurant behind the church where we had lunch. It was the best and least expensive meal we have had here.

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Switzerland, Sunday September 8, 2013

We woke to misty weather today. It rained some during the night and the tablecloth we left on the outdoor dining table was soggy. While outside examining all of the wetness, Merle discovered a really big snail slowly slithering along the rock wall carrying its large brown shell on its back.

Up until today we have had lots of sun.

Yesterday, Saturday, after a day of sleeping late, grocery shopping, reading and walking down and then up the very old cobbled and winding pathways from our duplex villa to the beach below two times, we decided that today we would do something in the line of sightseeing. So, after breakfast, we loaded some snacks in a cooler, grabbed our fleeces and rain gear and headed to St. Moritz, about a 2 hour drive. The weather was foggy-ish and so our hopes were not high that we would be able to enjoy views of the Alps. However, the drive there was very beautiful despite the low hanging clouds. Occasionally a couple of them would open and treat us to the sharp rise of a spectacular craggy peak here and there.

We started looking for a place to eat first. The plan was then to hike around Lake St. Moritz.

Merle said, "I smell food". His ample sniffer directed us to a buffet style restaurant in the heart of the town that was very busy. We looked at the buffet through a window. Everything looked appetizing. Lots of expensively, casually dressed people were digging in and taking piled plates back to their table. We were seated and then we too (especially me) piled our plates and started eating. I tried a couple of what I assumed were regional dishes and enjoyed them although I couldn't tell you what they were other than one of them had a juicy date in it. Dessert was little bowls of fluffy mousse heaven that had a delicate caramel flavor.

We were given the bill. The total with tip came to 53,00 euro or around $70.00. This WAS St. Moritz, the exclusive playground of the rich and famous. Expensively, casually dressed people should have given us a clue

1 US Dollar equals approximately .76 euro right now. This is something that we were aware of before coming but it doesn't really hit home until you get $300 cash at the Bancomat ATM and then when you check your online checking account you see that you were charged $395 US Dollars of which a small portion is US debit card fees. That's right. So, before going to euro country, check the exchange rate (it changes all of the time and usually never for the better) and figure if you spend 5,000 euros, it comes to approximately $6,590. You really can't escape it. Whatever you pay for in euros at this point in time will cost you more in dollars. We have done this before on other international trips and the memories have always been worth it as I am sure they are for all of the other Americans that do it too. But I digress.......

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St. Moritz

We donned our rain jackets and started on the trail by beautiful Lake St Moritz and hadn't gone far when we stopped to watch a cute terrier chasing a bright orange rubber ring rolling down the path. The dog's owner, a Swiss woman probably in her 50's with very long black hair and white roots engaged us in lively English conversation about the dog, then how much St. Moritz has changed for the worse on account of the filthy lucre, then how I wouldn't be able to wear the shorts I was wearing in the winter there when it was -30 C, then how Italians coming over the border is not a good thing and so on. However, she then recommended that we follow a dirt trail just ahead off of the lake path for a bit and stop at a little restaurant for coffee and kuchen (cake). We did and it was very delicious and pleasant and cost $25. After that we walked in the forest.

I ate so much buffet and kuchen that I will not eat tonight.

It is raining heavily. Lightening is flashing and thunder is thundering. Quite fierce. I am on the upstairs bed with the patio doors open so I can get the full affect without getting soaked. Merle is reading downstairs.

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Other Pictures

A narrow street in Italy. That is a camper coming in the other direction.

We saw several RV campers during our stay. On some of the narrow passageway streets, there are traffic lights at each end to insure that only one lane of traffic goes through at a time.

BUT, that is not always the case, and then you get to drive by a fast moving vehicle coming toward you with inches to spare.