Lake Como



Lake Como and Bellagio

This is the 2nd page of the travelogue of our May/June 2004 trip to Northern Italy. If you somehow missed the first page, click here: 1st Page.

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The next morning, we woke up to a perfect day. We decided to go off on our own and explore the lake by public ferry. The picture to the right is the view from our room. There's a ferry depot in Cernobbio, and you can see it in the picture. Like most European hotels, The Villa d’Este has a buffet breakfast that’s included in the price of the room. It’s served in the hotel’s restaurant, which has glass windows that disappear into the ground when the weather is warm. Here are a two pictures we took during breakfast. Those are real hydrangea flowers that are next to the windows.




Bellagio is about 17 miles from Cernobbio, and it takes about two hours to get there on the ferry. The ride is very scenic and the ferry crisscrosses the lake many times, taking on and dropping off passengers in many small and picturesque towns. To the left is the Villa d'Este as seen from Cernobbio. Below is the ferry terminal area, and our ferry to Bellagio.







Below are pictures that I took on our two-hour ferry ride to Bellagio. The pictures are in order.

















	The picture to the left is actually a video that I took while on the ferry. Press the play button on the picture to view the video










		Click on this map of Lake Como for a larger version


	The ferry ride was long, but very scenic. This was our first view of Bellagio. As soon as we landed, we set off to explore the town.




















Bellagio is one of the most famous resort towns on Lake Como and has seen more than its share of famous artists and writers. An interesting account of Lake Como and Bellagio can be found in Chapter 20 of Mark Twain's book "Innocents Abroad". This was Mark Twain's second book and a great popular success. Within its first year it sold over 70,000 copies, and it remained the best-selling of his books throughout his lifetime. He enjoyed his time on the lake, but in his book he makes it very clear that he liked Lake Tahoe much better.

	Lake Tahoe - My nephew Joe, who lives in Lake Tahoe, and I one month after the trip to Northern Italy. This picture was taken near the Mt. Rose Summit Road. The North Shore of Lake Tahoe is in the background. I respect Mark Twain's opinion, but I choose Lake Como over Lake Tahoe!






We walked around Bellagio for about an hour and then had lunch. After lunch, we decided to take a high speed ferry to Como. Cernobbio is just a short low-speed ferry ride from Como. We got back to the Villa d'Este in the late afternoon. The pictures below were taken in Como






I took the following pictures on our walk back to the Villa D'Este from the ferry dock in Cernobbio






	That night, we had dinner at the hotel. One thing about five-star hotel stays in Italy...Sport coats are usually required in hotel restaurants. People like to get dressed up for dinner, and you'll feel very uncomfortable if you don't have the right clothes. For us, that meant that we had to pack clothes that we normally wouldn't take with us on vacation. The picture to the left is the Villa d'Este lobby and staircase.




	To the left, a traditional Lake Como Boat, and the traditional way of rowing. I took a day off from picture taking the next day. We decided to just sit at the pool and enjoy the hotel spa and grounds. We went back into town for dinner that night, then sat on the veranda for a long time before we went back to our room to pack for our drive to Venice and the start of our seven-day cruise on the Po River.




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