Jennie's Journal: More Lakes

Monday 17^th September

Another cool start to the day but temperature rose to mid 20’s again.

We braved another day in the car and set out for Lake Como. We’d seen quite a number of signs to Como and the GPS was a bit confused when we followed a signpost rather than the instructions however before long, the GPS picked up the route we had chosen. The usual headache occurred when we couldn’t get parking close to the Funicular where we’d planned to go, We eventually found a Car Parking station not too far away but on our second attempt around the one way streets. A route march following the signs to the Funicular soon had us in the right direction.

Since 1894, the Como-Brunate funicular railway has been taking passengers up to Brunate to enjoy the breathtaking views this vantage point offers over Lake Como and the surrounding mountains. The carriages were fairly modern and this was a great way to ascend the mountain. We walked along the walking tracks for about an hour before returning to the funicular to descend to Como and set off for Bellagio where the three lakes meet. There was quite a haze in the air which was not very kind for photography. The road winding to Bellagio is about 26 kms but takes about an hour –winding around blind corners and hoping to not meet too many buses coming in the opposite direction.

There were many people around and we both thought that surely they haven’t all come by car. There were passenger & car ferries doing a roaring trade. We noticed that the streets were “buzzing” with American tourists – many coming in by ferry. After coffee we returned home, down the winding roads and home by a different route which crossed the Swiss border for a few kilometers before we found ourselves back in Italy. We were glad to be home and had a couple of hours to relax before dinner. We were able to check in on-line for our flight to Hong Kong on Wednesday. We have had many amazing experiences in the last five weeks and really enjoyed our holiday but we’re both feeling ready to return home and put the suitcases away for a while.