We made it to Bellagio! No, not the Las Vegas hotel with fountains that shoot skyward while Andreo Boccelli sings Con te Partiro. (Although that is pretty neat). We’re in the little town of Bellagio, Italy, on beautiful Lake Como. Mamma mia!
Ferry Ride to Bellagio
But getting here wasn’t easy. As described last time, after 23 hours of travel time, we found ourselves driving up what I thought was the wrong side of the lake. We let out a sigh of relief when we figured out that the GPS was taking us to a ferry crossing to Bellagio.
The ferry landing is at the tiny little town of Cadenabbia. We parked the car in a line with some others that seemed to be waiting for the next ferry, and I went to go buy a ticket. No problemo. Pretty soon we could see the ferry coming our way.
The ferry pulled in and let down its ramp like a drawbridge. We waited as cars came off first, then people. Then we drove onto the ferry and parked. In a few minutes we were on our way, crossing the lake.
Bellagio looked fantastic on the other side. It looked just like the pictures we’d seen. The closer we got, the better it looked.
The trip across the lake took about 15 minutes. We drove off the ferry and into the little town of Bellagio. We’d made it! Now all we had to do was find a place to park and find the hotel.
Ahhhh… Finally – Bellagio!
Bellagio is a small town. There’s only one street suitable for cars. It circles the town. The rest of the “streets” are walkways, or more like stairways, really. Our hotel is halfway up one of the stairways, so we needed to find a place to park the car, then get out and find the hotel on foot.
Parking in Bellagio can be a nightmare, but we got lucky and found a great spot. We parked the car in that spot and didn’t touch it for the next four days.
We found the hotel, checked in, went back for our luggage, and we were in. Ahhhhhh. The room was perfect. It was on the third floor. Two sets of French doors opened onto little balconies overlooking Lake Como.
We were dog tired, but we were hungry, too, so we headed out to get a bite to eat. We ate at a lakeside table under the shade of some trees. It was a beautiful, warm day. We had fish from the lake for lunch. (Or for whatever meal it was. We were still on California time).
We went back to the room. The next thing I knew, it was two hours later. I guess we took naps! Let’s see, it was about 4:00 in the afternoon in Bellagio, but back home it was 7:00 in the morning, which was great, because we were just getting up, anyway. Sort of. Or not. Whatever. When bedtime comes here in Bellagio, we’re going to conk out no matter what time our body clocks think it is.
But our plan right now is to wake up and force ourselves to stay up until at least 10:00 PM, so maybe we’ll get a full night’s sleep. That way, if we’re lucky, we’ll wake up tomorrow with minimal jet lag. We might as well head out and do some exploring, eh?
Let’s Have a Look Around
There’s a lakeside promenade in Bellagio, lined with nice hotels, restaurants, and stores. The only street in town runs between the promenade and the lake.
The lake-side of the street is lined with trees and dining tables. Waiters have to go back and forth across the street to take care of their customers. It’s not a problem, though, because there’s no traffic to speak of.
Beyond the trees lies the lake, along with three docks for various kinds of boats that constantly come in and head out. One of the docks is for the ferry we came in on. Another docks is for a water taxi that we’ll be taking tomorrow.
We strolled around for a while, keeping an eye out for restaurants that look enticing. There were plenty of tourists around, but not many American-sounding voices to be heard. We heard Germans, Italians, of course, French, and surprisingly, (to me at least), a lot of British. I say, there were quite a lot of them.
One thing is for sure – folks with a lot of euros like to come here to hang out. It’s no wonder why people with a lot of euros come here, though. This place is gorgeous.
The Plan
The day after tomorrow, we’re going to make a day-trip to Milan by train. We can catch the train at Varenna, another town on Lake Como. Our plan for tomorrow is to make a test run to Varenna so we know how to get there and back. We need to check water taxi schedules, train schedules, etc.
But first… it’s dinnertime. We’re in Italy. Need I say more? Mamma mia!
To be continued…
