Lake Como

Milan

From La Spezia, we went on by train to Milan. While on board, a pair of Polizia boarded twice, asking for passports. I was sitting with my travel friend Kiran, a young Indian/Canadian guy. The Polizia seemed to be targeting a guy sitting across from us, maybe they thought he was an illegal immigrant? To make it not look like they were picking on him, they also picked on us to do passport checks. They seemed shocked that we were travelling together so we may have been added to their list. Kiran thought we should have told them he was my sugar baby to see what they thought about that.

We had a layover at the train station there, known as one of the most beautiful in Europe.

From Milan, we got on a train marked Locarno, in Switzerland, but we got off part way in Como. We are very close to the Swiss border here.

Como

Como is an upscale city on the shore of Lake Como. Our base is a very nice hostel in Como, because the usual hotel in a slightly less upscale town along the lake has closed due to covid.

We went up a funicular to the town of Brunate to see the view over the lake. After that, we walked around the town for a glimpse of the massive villas and their gardens. Many of them seem deserted for the fall season.

Back in Como, we had dinner, then tried to find a bar near the hotel but everything was closed by 10 p.m.

The next morning, we took a 2 hour ferry across Como Lake, ending at Bellagio, the most well-known town here. We passed by George Clooney’s summer villa along the lake, rear view, but I missed it. Richard Branson also has a villa along the lake.

The ferry made many stops to add people, and soon we had a crowd of standing room only on the front deck in the cold wind.

Bellagio

Bellagio is an elegant town known as the Pearl of Lake Como. Besides wandering the town, the best thing to do here was visit Villa Melzi, known for its gardens on the lake.

Back in Como after a fast ferry back, we went to one of the town squares for “happy hour”. You could order any drink for 12 euros ($18) and also get plates full of appetizers.

From dinner we found a bar for a last spritzer in this playground of the rich and famous.