Driving toward Lake Como was just beautiful! We left the Cinque Terre and continued up the coast going through Genoa. The mountains were stunning! We came out of those mountains around the west side of Milan and then the closer we got to Lake Como the larger the mountains rose again!
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| These shots were taken through the car window. |
We drove up the eastern side of the lake because we were staying in the village of Vareena. It was a beautiful little town right on the water with a great walkway right at the edge of the lake. It was the perfect side of the lake to be on to see the sunset views! Our place was an adorable home with a beautiful courtyard/patio area which they used to serve us breakfast each morning. The Villa Vareena even had a resident puppo! He was a Boston Terrier named Roosevelt after the US president, although I not sure which president - we just assumed it was Teddy. Our terrace was a great space with beautiful views! Our first evening we spent some time in the town, on our terrace and had dinner by the water.
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| Our Terrace |
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| Roosevelt the Boston Terrier. |
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| Dinner view |
Vareena is one of the villages of the lake on a ferry stop. The ferry is a great transport option to the towns along Lake Como. After a patio breakfast at our place the next morning, we got a day pass for the ferry and our first stop was Menaggio. It was a little bigger than Vareena and seemed to have a little more options in regard to restaurants and shopping. We spent some time walking the historical walk in the town and then we stopped at a cafe for tiramisu!
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| Villa Vareena |
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| Beautiful little letter slots were all over Italy. |
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| Our breakfast table setting |
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| Spotted on our walk to the ferry |
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| Spotted in Menaggio |
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| Old, old streets |
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| Yes, they drive cars on these old tiny streets |
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| Look what I found!!! |
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| A Little Free Library! |
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| Tiramisu |
We hopped back on the ferry and rode it to the end of our ticket to Argegno. Lake Como is shaped with a large section at the top and then two leg-like sections at the bottom. At the split is the very popular Bellagio. Argegno is a little further south down the western leg side. Once there we had about an hour until we caught the ferry back to Vareena so we sat at a cafe, had a snack and watched many travelers go by.
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| Argegno in the distance |
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| At the cafe watching travelers go by - this was actually a very busy street. I just snapped the pic in between cars and people. |
Lake Como is approximately 56 square miles and around 1300 feet deep at its deepest part. The day on the water was hot, but beautiful! Next trip, we rent our own boat! There's no denying how beautiful Lake Como is. The water, the mountains, the homes...
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| A view of Vareena from the ferry |
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| The port side of Vareena |
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| You can see a tiny portion of our Villa Vareena (white building) just above the ferry and slightly to the left. |
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| So many beautiful colors |
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| You can see the mechanism created to carry materials up to the house that they are working on. |
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| I spy a chapel! - Look closely!! |
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| A diving board in the lake - you had to swim to the diving board and climb up. Not sure who this is but they were enjoying the board. |
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| I loved the stripe created by the cliff ridge. |
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| Mountain views |
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| Cloud shadows on the hills |
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| Cemetery and you can see some modern homes just above it. |
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| Something like this would have been my pick. |
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| I loved how the homes appear to crawl up the side of the hill. |
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| This was the largest home we saw on our journey - I am sure there are bigger though. |
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| So many bell towers! |
We had reservations for dinner at a restaurant that was just a short walk from our Villa Vareena. The views from the restaurant were stunning! And the food was spectacular! It was one of my top 3 meals during our trip.
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| My Ravioli was filled with Lake Perch and covered in a sage butter sauce. Delicious!! |
The next morning we headed to the ferry to put the car on the boat. There are three locations on the lake that offer car ferry service - Vareena, Menaggio, and Bellagio. We wanted to ferry to Bellagio and drive toward Milan from the western side of the lake for different views from our arrival. We got off the ferry in Bellagio and headed toward Nesso. Once in Nesso, in an effort to look for interesting views, we got sidetracked up the mountainside and since it was so difficult on the small roads to turn around and back track, we just followed the re-route of the GPS over the 4000 elevation mountain! The views were beautiful!
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| Views of Vareena from the walkway. |
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| The walkway along the water in Vareena. It was funny how the tree limb was just growing over the walkway. |
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| On the ferry - it was a bit of an odd sensation since we couldn't see the front of the boat. |
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| We begin to climb |
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| We are the blue dot - the elevation reached almost 4000 ft. So many cyclist riding up the mountain! |
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| Mountain views |
Next stop - Milan!
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