Bellagio, cont. Wed 28 May 2008

Well, today was our most relaxing day so far.... my parents definitely needed to take it easy and so we only went out for a stroll around the gardens of the Villa Serbelloni. Trying to get a parking space in the town centre is mission impossible so we tend to park outside the town and walk the 1km to where we need to go. Easier and cheaper. You do actually save time by walking 10 minutes than if you spend 20 minutes looking for a spot. So many local people speak French here actually, it is quite a pleasant surprise and useful sometimes as it saves my sister having to translate everything back to my parents (I can only guess a lot if I know the context).

The Villa Serbonelli is owned by the Rockfeller Foundation (they received it as a gift from an eccentric aristocrat who spent her whole life wearing pink and driving pink cars, painting her furniture pink and having pink curtains and china, etc) and in her will the woman specified that they were not allowed to sell the villa (the grounds alone are worth millions of euros due to their prime location) and to allow tourists in twice a day. She did not leave it to the Italian government as she worried they would misuse the land. The RF also had enough money in the bank to look after the property forever more as it is high maintenance.

However, you can only view some parts of the grounds and must stay on the path at all times. Every month the villa has 100 students from around the world staying there (40% Americans usually). You can stay there free of charge but you must be a student who needs tranquility to finish a PhD (be it in botany, music, etc) or an artist of some sort. They have now built some sound proof studios around the park, and you often see painters with their canvasses out. I believe the maximum stay is one month. We had to go with a group and our guide was quite interesting but only talked in English so we had to translate the best bits for our parents. Nathalie whispered in my dad's ears and I was doing the same with my mother.

The gardens boast beautiful views over Veronna and the lakes but you best of the grounds is not accessible to tourists so I was quite disappointed as the post cards I had seen showed something much more spectacular. Besides, one is officially not allowed to take photos towards the villa, to respect people's privacy. But it being Italy our guide said that she had stated we were not allowed to take photos and that was enough. The rest was up to us ! 'hint, hint'.... ;)

It was a whole hour uphill and then a bit more levelled up and then going down again (almost the same way). We all thought it was ok but not worth the 32 euros we had spent to get in. In fact, of all the villa grounds that we had seen, it was our least favourite. We mainly enjoyed the exercise more than anything, it was like a walk with a purpose really... and to learn a bit about local history.

Afterwards we hung around in town just feeding the ducks and sparrows (one of my parents' fav hobby) and we went back to our room to change into slightly warmer clothes and headed almost straight back into town for our second meal at the Hotel Metropole. It was such a warm evening that we could not resist the temptation of being above the water. It had been dry all day -- proving the weather forecast wrong all over again, thank God.

We did treat ourselves a bit too much and I definitely looked 'pregnant' after a 4 course meal. I am trying really hard to change all this as of now as I do not want to go back to London with a double chin, yuk. Italian food is really something and too yummy... and they tend to put liquors in all their desserts and even sorbets so that it helps digestion nicely -- loved it.

The following morning, my mother's 72th birthday, the weather was not great at all. Rain and heavy haze. We had a lighter breakfast this time (I was still too full from the night before) but we are still quite short of options. So it is back to our usual 'family' time of my dad having a snooze or reading his newspapers on the sofa, my mother and sister playing dice games and me on the internet, once it became available... Not the ideal 'family' time but it does alter moods when the sun is not au rendez-vous.... sigh.

Not sure what on earth we will do tomorrow if nothing improves... I guess I will only log back on if there is something remotely interesting to say. Oh, I did buy a few post cards but have not written them yet, maybe today would be a good day for this, come to think of it !

Varenna Highlights - 27 May 2008

Well, the weather forecast was true to its predictions --- for once. It was lovely and sunny when we all woke up. We tried to finish breakfast 30 mins earlier than normal so that we could make the most of the day in case it really was the best day of the week, as I said earlier.

Nathalie, who had been to Varenna before was convinced we needed a car to go from one Villa to another, so off we went, by ferry, with the car as well. Boats run every 30 mins and the ride was really pretty and relaxing. You can sit on the top (tiny) deck enjoying the views and though all villages look roughly the same (one church, lots of houses with pink or orange or deep yellow walls, all with dark green shutters and tall pine trees scattered all over) they are so picturesque that you do not get tired of seeing them. They have the classic Italian look... the kind of colours that you only find in warmer climates, colours that spell warmth and cosiness... (if such a word exists). La Dolce Vitta...

When we got to Varenna we followed the signs to the Villa Cipressi and soon lost them... we drove round a bit further, but niet. We stopped at the next village South of Varenna, and someone sent us back where we came from (Nathalie has been learning Italian for 2-3 years now which came in really handy on more than one occasions!). We drove back, missed our turning and headed up too far North... Again, when we got to the next village, we realised we had to turn back. In despair we parked our car just outside the main church (where we had pretty much started from and where the main car park was) and thought we would ask for proper directions from there. It turns out that what we were after was just 30 meters from where we had parked the car (make that a 40 second walk, if that). We had just wasted 30 mins for nothing.... except that the drives, both along the lake shores were very scenic and so it did not really feel like a waste of time after all. But when we realised we were so near the ferry point, Nathalie, once more, realised she had messed up again... or that her memory had let her down, shall we say. There was no need for a car after all. It was a lot easier to walk around. Though most of the villages around the lakes do not have any kind of pavements which makes us a bit nervous as there is little visability on the roads due to the many zig zags....

The Villa Cipressi is now a 3* Hotel but you can at least get in by paying a small fee to view the gardens. I thought they were very pretty, and smelt lovely. Quite a few roses with a strong scent and other type of aromatic herbs. It was very pleasant indeed and I took some really nice photos of the lovely landscaped gardens in the foreground and the beautiful lake in the background. Many boats come and go all day to connect all the various villages so you never have to wait too long for a spot of white among the blue to make the pictures more interesting.

Our next stop, Villa Monastero, was a few feet away and even more beautiful. Lots of statues and columns added a special touch to the terraces. They also had palm trees and many orange trees. Again, I took some really nice photos. Much better than some of the ones I saw featured in the local freebie brochures - even if I have to say so myself. The brochures all focused on the main villas, i.e. pretty much only showed the actual house. Whereas I tried to focus on the gardens with the house being a focal point in the background. You will see what I mean when I share some with you all ! Be patient ! We spent an hour there as well and though the gardens were fairly compact they were varied enough to look quite different from various vantage points.

We spent an hour in each villa and felt it was about the right time. We had parked the car for 2 hours anyway. We had spent a few minutes trying to find the machine where to buy tickets from when a guy had told us 'between noon and 2pm, parking is free'. We looked at our watches and it was exactly noon. How about that? I felt that God was smiling on us and our getting lost earlier had been a blessing in disguise... just so that we would get to where we needed to be at exactly the right time. I love to believe in such things! :) Please bear with me if you don't but our trip so far has been blessed with many such God-incidences.

After that, we headed back to the ferry and had 20 mins to spare before heading back to Bellagio so I had a lovely ice cream, as one does in Italy, in a pretty cafe overlooking the harbour.

Lovely journey back on the deck of the small ferry (large enough for 5-7 cars) but the haze on the hills was thicker as it was early afternoon.

Nathalie then recommended we go to Lenno, to take a look at the famous Villa Balbianello. She had really enjoyed it 5 years ago and had found it exquisite. We parked the car and waited another 30 mins for our ferry connection. However, on our 2nd stop we could have done with a car as it was a good 30 mins walk up hill to get to the villa. She had first been there in a water taxi (every other day you can reach it by boat, the rest of the time on foot) and my parents were getting a bit exhausted by then. She had called the Villa earlier and had been told that the last visits would be at 4:30pm and our boat, that was supposed to arrive at 3:40pm (if you believe Italian timetables), did no actually get there till 4:10pm. It was a lovely hike with spectacular views over Lenno. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but, as my parents like to remind me 'you are 30 years younger than we are, wait till you get to 72, see if you can sustain that kind of rythm all day'. They are still fairly fit and managed to keep up but we were advised that they would need to recover the next day...

I liked Villa Balbianello, it was very atmospheric, but it lacked flowers for my taste. It was mainly green gardens and blue lake. Not many splashes of colours. But it was scenic enough to be used as the setting for the wedding scene of Star Wars (I have never seen Star Wars so that was totally wasted on me).

Again, we had to wait an hour for the last ferry to take us back to Bellagio. There was none before that. I hate doing nothing, so whilst my parents and sister just put up with it graciously sitting on a bench watching the boats go by, I went to the 4* hotel across the road and ordered a cool drink and some crisps (no food before 7pm). I felt I earned it due to the fact we had spent a few hours walking around all day. I did get a great tan out of it though...

When we got to Bellagio, it was 7:00pm, we were told we had to wait for 30 mins to get a table by the lake. We had set our hearts on trying the Hotel Metropole as it had the best terrace. Prices were surprising reasonable considering the great location so that my mother and sister could feed the ducks on the water below in between courses. The food was really good and so we walked back to our car at 10:10pm feeling like we had really had a full day.

I believe I took about 150 photos so it really was a good day for me too (I always measure how good days are by numbers of photos taken, hey). Some would make great calendars...

When we got to our hotel it was raining quite a bit (the only rain all day, not bad). The lady who owns the hotel (and speaks 4 languages fluently at 65+ which is quite amazing) told us 'when it rains at night, it's a good sign, it will be sunny tomorrow'. We slept like logs, again.... and allowed for an extra 30 mins in bed for my parents' sake.

The next morning, the weather was not very sunny but sitll very bright (as predicted by our hotel owner) and still very warm AND DRY. We were able to enjoy our 2nd breakfast on the beautiful terrace overlooking the lakes. It makes such a difference... We had a really leisurely breakfast and right now my mother and sister are playing a dice game, my dad is upstairs on the terrace of their room reading his newspapers and here I am, at reception, typing my blog away. Thank God they have internet access here otherwise I would be seriously bored as I have no book to read and am not an avid fan of card or dice games. I am desperate for some exercise to walk off my breakfast but I am not sure I will have much luck in the next hour... In fact, just as I was typing this my dad came down to advise me that he fancied a nap... ok, so I guess I will have to find another way of keeping myself entertained than walking to the nearby waterfall (they will not let me go alone in case a bad boy comes my way).

However, we have agreed that if it is still beautiful this afternoon we will go to town (3.5kms away) to try and visit Villa Serbelloni. They have a guided tour at 3:30pm and you can only get in with a guided tour as it is now an exclusive luxury hotel. The grounds look very interesting too, going by the post cards that I have seen and the haze is usually lighter after 4pm.

I shall report back in due course! Bisous to you all... Sylvie x

Como surroundings - 26 May 2008

Shortly after I last emailed we were advised to go and have dinner at the Solice Blu, 'the best restaurant in Bellagio, just a mile down our road'. The Chef (only 25) was already well accomplished having won many awards for his creative cuisine. Most recently he was voted top Chef in Italy (where competition is fierce since food is such an art here). He came to pick us up by car and we went with an American couple.

This was supposed to be 'cuisine gastronomique' at its best and fancy it was, but tasteful it was not. We found it all very average and were quite disappointed. What my mother had was even below average, she could have done much better with her home made gnocchi than his. So we skipped desserts (no point wasting money) and just waited for the American couple to enjoy theirs... Their desserts looked amazing but they too said they looked better than they actually were. It was a real pity as it is not often that my parents can enjoy top cuisine. At least the American couple were really nice and great fun and I guess we would have never met them if we had not shared the drive. The guy worked for NASA and they loved animals as much as we did.

The next day Nathalie had set her heart of going to visit Villa d'Erba and Villa D'este nr Como (i.e. 35-45kms away from Bellagio, depending on which route you took). Before we left Besancon I had checked her list of recommended sight seeing but had not highlighted Erba on the map. I did say to her "Are you sure we need to go to Erba?"... She was like "Of course, where else would it be? It is called Villa d'Erba, remember?". Ok, so, off we went towards Erba, high up on the hill, enjoying amazing panaromic views on the way (the weather was cloudy but bright - no rain, but still some haze). We even found, by pure chance, a museum for cyclists in a chapel that was dedicated to all the ones who had died on the roads. My Dad being a keen cyclist was really pleased about that -- I mean, he was pleased that he had found a museum dedicated to his favourite sport, not pleased that so many had died on the road !

We then got a bit lost on the way and thought we'd better check the map more closely. I asked her to show me her list of sight seeing recommendations and lo and behold, The Villa d'Erba was not in Erba, as I had sensed, but in Cernobbio. We just had to write this off as yet another 'blonde moment' as she likes to label them. So off we went to Cernobbio. We eventually found the Villa and parked nearby. How we managed to find it was yet another little miracle, something made me look back and I caught a glimpse of the gate with the name on it. My sister said 'I did think it was odd that you would do a double take on the cyclists' (who had just driven past). Indeed I couldn't care less for the cyclists. It was another God-incidence if you ask me. So we parked the car for 2 hours and then walked to the gate and a guy there told us in Italian that it was closed today due to a congress taking place. In fact it is usually closed during the week, only opens on the week end. But next Saturday we have to drive back to Besancon, so our good fortune did not work out in the end. However, Villa D'Este, he said, was only 10 mins walk away. So we felt we had a great back up plan.

We found it fairly easily but there was a plaque on it saying 'One of the leading hotels of the world' and a guard by the gate... who promptly informed us that the hotel grounds were for guests only and so we would not be able to walk around them. Double bad luck.

In disgust we found a little cafe by the lake, I ordered comfort food (red fruits with ice creams) and we just watched the world go by for an hour or so feeding the sparrows.

Once we got past our moments of disappointments we headed for Como to have a look at the famous Duomo (Dome). As we were heading for the Dome we bumped into the US couple who had spent our dinner time with us the night before and they had a free map to give us, of the town centre... It was really handy as it happens and another little miracle.

The Dome was beautiful, it was (amazingly) free to get in. The ceilings wereas pretty spectacular as well. I was able to take some very nice photos too by changing my camera speed to 800ASA. By the time we came out though, it had started to rain. We tried to kill some time by buying more ice creams or cakes but we eventually decided it was better to go back. We had a 45 mins drive ahead of us, zig zagging all the way, in very narrow streets, i.e. quite stressful for our driver. In fact, even though the drives by the lake boast fantastic views our driver is never able to enjoy them as she has to constantly focus on drivers coming the other way and not leaving her much space to manoeuvre around them.

We got back to our hotel at 5:30pm, had a rest for an hour and then found another nice restaurant in town. Same deal. They came to pick us up and drove us back, free of charge. We had a great dinner at much better value and saw our US friends at the next table, again. I guess our hotel must be recommending the same restaurants to all their guests! But this free taxi service is great for anyone who does not have a car with them.

We got home at 10:15pm and were ready for a shower and long sleep. We have slept like logs since we got here. By bed time we are all shattered, we cannot work out why, it must be something in the air? We do not do any vigorous exercises as such to justify such tiredness...

We checked the weather forecast again and we were told that tomorrow would be the better day and after that it would most likely rain again. We decided that we would have to pack it all in tomorrow and see the top 3 highlights that we had not seen yet. Assuming the weather forecast was right... So far, thankfully, it had been a lot better than predicted. Some rain but on and off, not constant, as feared (and as it has been in England we understand). It does widen up options when you can stroll around at leisure... especially when all the little villages around the lakes look so pretty. It is like walking inside a painting... very very quaint.

Villa Melzi and Carlotta

When we woke up the first thing we all did was peek out of the window: drizzle, fog, you could not see more than 10 meters ahead. You couldn't even see the lake. Drat. Thank God food is a great comfort so we pigged out in harmony over breakfast till we figured a plan of action. We thought we could head for Bellagio and walk around the town, at least we would be near cafes during potential downpours.

However, the weather did improve quite a bit over the morning. The drizzle lifted and we were able to walk through the lovely gardens of Villa Melzi without the need for an umbrella. It also meant I could take some great pictures, much better than I expected at this rate. The only sad thing is that we had missed out on the rhododendrons (spelling?) in bloom. It was so disappointing because you could tell that everything had been landscaped so as to maximise the vivid colours of pink and red vs the blue of the lake. It still looked pretty, but no way near as its potential.

We then had a drink by the lake shore in a pretty cafe and then decided to transfer across the lake by boat to get to Villa Carlotta. Nathalie had raved about it for months... it was supposed to be THE highlight, the thing that was going to make my mother go 'wow' as it was just splashes of colours after colours (150 different types of rhododendrons and azaelas). However, because we had just missed the bloom season she was SO disappointed. We were gutted too but I guess it was worse for her because she knew exactly what we were missing out on. Instead of this amazing display of colours that was so breathtaking that people flew over from all over the world to witness it, it was just more green and shades of green. We did see some post cards at the Villa's Gift Shop showing how it should have been, and yes, it did make you want to cry. But I guess there is nothing you can do to predict when the best bloom will take place. She is adamant she had visited Villa Carlotta at exactly the same time (last week in May) 2 years ago, however, in 2008 it seems that early May would have been better. This is the one thing you cannot predict properly and very few people have the luxury of playing it by ear.

The afternoon got worse and worse weather wise and unfortunately we missed our return boat by 5 minutes so had to wait another hour for the next one. Not great. We asked if we could go all the way back up the stairs to reach the villa again and sit inside instead of waiting under an old tree and getting wet.

I did manage to take some lovely photos, but I know that if it had all gone according to plan, I would have taken 100 more... oh well.

So we are really unsure how to plan our week. We will have to see how each day feels and how the weather holds or not... I just hope I can take at least one glorious shot of the lake from our terrace since the view is the main reason we booked here! To be cont.

Getting to from Bellagio - 25 May 2008

Well, we all arrived safe and sound in Bellagio. It did take us about 6 hours to drive from my hometown of Besancon (Eastern France) to this renowned beauty spot. It was actually easier than we thought it would be and much more scenic too. Even though it was 90% motorway the views were pretty spectacular especially when we reached Swizterland as we were driving inside valleys with massive snow capped mountains on each side. We stopped for lunch at a service station on the way and the view from the terrace was so pretty that you would have never thought you were just off the motorway. And the food was very gourmet too - outstanding choice. The only down side is that we were in the German part of Switzerland and I had to try and remember the little German I knew to handle basics ("small" portion vs "big" portion, "we will pay all together", etc). Hand movements often worked best !

When we got just past Lugano we had to go through the Italian border and get off the motorway to drive to Como, from then on, the Michelin directions we had printed out and that had served us really well till then became unmanageable. They were saying things like 'when you get to Via X, take a left, at the next round about, take Via Y'... that is all very well if you have no one else on the road but it was just too fast with cars around for us to take a proper look at the street names and even find where they were to start with. So, we binned the instructions and used flair... We did not think we would do very well at this new game but we surprised ourselves. We just followed the main road by the lake (best landmark around!) and then we had to hope that our hotel would be sign posted so that we would know where to find the street. It could have taken us 5 hours or 5 minutes. It took us 10 minutes. Not bad. This was thanks to my cunning plan of taking binoculars with me so that I could read the signs a mile off (about 300m or more, not bad) and my being to read signs real fast. My family had nicknamed me for years 'Oeil de Lynx' (Puma Eye) for such circumstances and I did live up to my Indian name and to their expectations, hey.

We got to hotel at long last (6 hours is starting to feel like a loooong time even with an hour break in the middle) and were told that our rooms had just been given to 2 couples. Mix up in the bookings. The lady who owned the place got hopelessly confused, could not understand how it could have gone so horribly wrong, nor where she went wrong. She checked everything 3 times over. It took 45 minutes for the mess to clear up. Basically an US couple had tried to reserve 2 rooms back in Nov (i.e. before us) but the hotel's computer had not processed their deposit properly and so they had not received the official confirmation, just a provisional one till they had secured it with a deposit. I felt sorry for them as they had to pack their suitcases again and find another hotel in town and get another cab, etc. and they had come all the way from the USA!!! They were very nice about it though. So were we. We all tried to stay calm and not flip.

My parents have the superior room with a great view of the lake and a huge terrace and my sister and I sleep on the garden side, with an equally huge terrace. Both are fine. The hotel (Il Perlo Panorama) is only a 2* hotel but the people who run it are very friendly and multi lingual which is great for my parents. They are fluent at French and English. My sister is happy to practice her Italian. Breakfasts are really yummy too.

That evening we just relaxed for an hour and then went to a great restaurant that they recommended down the road. In fact, the restaurants here even send a pick up car for you, free of charge, so that you can drink without having to worry about driving. Great idea. The roads are full of twists and turns and there are no pavements so it would be very dodgy to walk them at night and my sister is not keen on driving in the dark so everybody is happy.

It was quite cloudy when we got there so we didn't really see the glorious view advertised in the brochures, but I found it quite atmospheric in a way. However, we didn't fancy an atmospheric view all week, having looked at some lovely books they had showing the highlights of this region with glorious blue skies. However, the weather forecast was adamant - rain, rain and more rain all week. Our hearts sank.