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Lake Como and the Cinque Terre (24 - 27 September 2010)

A month ago Katie, Kristina, and I set out on a two-week road trip in and around Germany, and it was awesome! Kristina flew over from Texas to do that trip and since then has continued gallivanting around the continent while the rest of us went back to bloody work and our respective daily grinds (yes, I'm as jealous as I sound). After the Germany trip a mate of hers flew in from the States and they did Tuscany and Croatia together, and now Kristina's mother has flown over from Texas and they're currently doing three weeks all over the show hahaha, what a life! Anyway, I decided to gate-crash their travels for a long weekend while they were in Lake Como and the Cinque Terre, both in the north of Italy. And, as I like to do, I made something of a mini road-trip out of it :)

I flew out of Paris after work on Friday, and how the Paris Metro never fails to amuse me. Today we had this guy preaching about something in French to the platform of people across the tracks...				...then, while we were stopped at a station near the airport, grandad here walked up and ducked beneath the elevator, whipped his old fella out and took a piss, again in front of a platform full of people and my train hahaha!

I get to Charles de Gaulle Airport (incidentally the first mainland-European airport I ever flew into some four years ago) and, true to form, easyJet are delayed again! I know you get what you pay for but Jesus Christ. So I spent two long boring hours milling about the airport.		Eventually I landed in the land of Nutella, where they shovel that shit out by the spoonful!		I'd flown into Milan, collected the hire car and started on the 60km drive north to the lake, meeting Kristina and her mum (or mom) halfway there. And this was the weather, absolutely torrential pissing rain.

Thankfully the rain didn't last and the rest of the weekend was pretty good. This is looking north on Lake Como, overlooking the town of Bellagio where we were staying for two nights. Bellagio sits at the tip of the peninsula separating the lake's two southern arms. Off in the far distance there are the Swiss Alps, still snow-capped. Lake Como is apparently a popular spot with celebrities; George Clooney, Sylvester Stallone, Madonna etc. all have or had homes on the lake.

The plan was to spend Saturday and part of Sunday driving around the lake, and later on Sunday driving down to the Cinque Terre.		Bellagio is home to 3,000 Nutella-loving locals. This is looking next door to our accommodation. I just missed him but grandad was out picking oranges or something before being summoned by grandma, who noticed me with a camera at the ready and scurried back inside.		Hmmm, you could ride your tyre tube on that!

Bellagio town - nice!
		Good spot for a Peroni. When you've reached that age together and you've run out of shit to talk about, there's always the drink :)
We set out from Bellagio along some bloody narrow and winding roads, and that's just how I like 'em!

Once out of Bellagio the roads pretty much stayed the same, with a few hills thrown in for more fun.		No worries, we'll squeeze through there!		Ok, no we won't. Nah just kidding, the hire car made it back after the weekend in one piece, but I saw so many cars like this with dents and scrapes along the side of them. Not a good spot to own a Skyline.

Our route mostly followed the shoreline. This didn't quite rival Achensee for me but it's up there!

First stop was the little town of Varenna on the lake's eastern shore, home to just 800 Nutella-lovers.

Back in Bellagio a wedding was gearing up, and likewise here in Varenna. The lake is a good spot for getting hitched apparently. I drove up, stopped in the middle of the road, and got my own wedding photo. You can't really see it here but the bride and groom smiled for me hehe.		Nice wee place to wander and grab some chow. Plenty of seafood (or lake food, I guess) in these parts.

A lot of the lake towns have villas with immaculate gardens overlooking the lake - bloody nice (if you're willing to pay the entrance fee).

If you're in the mood, there are several walking trails the lead up into the hills overlooking Varenna.		Not a bad spot to end up. Again it doesn't quite rival Lauterbrunnen for mine but it's up there :)

The trail that we were on took us to this - Fiumelatte River, Italy's shortest at just 250 metres!		No one's exactly sure what the source of the river is. It comes pissing out of this cave in the hillside, and crashing down into the lake. The river usually dries up between October and March, possibly indicating the river is the vent of an unexplored underground cavity in the mountain.

The name Fiumelatte, composed from fiume (Italian for "river") and latte ("milk"), is due to the milky white color of its water. They got that right.		So that was the sleepy little Lake Como town of Varenna. Lovely.

Back on the road and despite the hills there was no shortage of cyclists! I guess it's worth it for the views but I think I'd rather screw a car around here than my legs.
Opposite Varenna on the western shore of the lake is Menaggio, one of the more popular spots on the lake and the location of some of those celebs' homes I mentioned earlier. It would've been good to hang about here a bit longer but the drive around the lake back to Bellagio would have taken a couple hours, so instead we cheated and got the last car ferry of the day for the 15-minute trip across the water.

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