Sunday morning we loaded up the Saturn and embarked on a
long awaited visit to Lake Como in northern Italy. We had talked about it several times and had
even driven past the lake on our trip to Alsace France (see “Road Trip to
Alsace” blog post dated 5/12/13).
Additionally, we would use our stay at the lake as a
springboard to continue on into Switzerland, visiting the old traditional
village of Soglio overnight before spending our last two days in St.
Moritz. It was a little over 4
hours driving to reach the city limits
of Como, located at the south end of the lake, but we pressed on up along the
eastern shore to the small town of
Torno.
I chose the town of Torno because it’s much smaller
than the city of Como, and remains true to its authentic northern Italian
culture without Como’s overblown commercialism. It literally sits on the water’s edge and has close proximity to
good hiking trails. That, and the fact
that this was the view from our balcony at the Hotel Vapore!
Monday Oct-14 - After breakfast we walked up to the highway and caught
the trailhead up to Monte Piatto.
Although technically marked as a “trail”, it begins as a series of stone
and rocky steps that spiral up the steep mountain, easily more than 2000 of
them interspersed with stretches of gravel trails that comprise the long climb
up to Monte Piatto.
The cloudy skies were cool and perfect for hiking, and the higher up the mountain we went the more beautiful the overlooks of Lake Como became. When we finally reached the summit we found the village of Monte Piatto. At first we wondered how on earth these people managed to travel up here (and how did they run out for a 6 pack of birra?)
As we continued on we realized the path leveled off a bit
and became a double-wide trail made from chiseled and fitted rocks – a road of
sorts. It was a narrow, twisting path
that was steep in some places (with treacherous, unprotected drop-offs too),
but just enough for the narrowest of tiny Italian cars to make it through for
the hardy highland souls brave enough to make the drive.
We continued on to another, larger mountain village
called Piazzago and from there started the long, steep decent to Torno, concluding
our challenging, 4 ½ hour hike a short distance from the street to the
hotel. We dropped our hiking gear off in
our room and headed back down to the outside veranda at the water’s edge of Lake
Como for some refreshment.
That night we had dinner at Hotel Vapore's fine
restaurant. Angie had Lavaret, a fresh
water fish caught right from Lake Como, I had the filet made with a green
peppercorn sauce that is very popular in northern Italy. Both were outstanding, as was the service.
Tuesday Oct-15 - This morning we caught the ferry to the city of Como then
walked over to the funicular (cable driven train) for the steep ride up the mountain to Brunate. From there we took the long
hike (surprisingly a lot of it up hill) back to Torno. It was a great hike – the weather was actually
a bit sunny, but with the cool temps the trekking under the canopy of the forest
was very agreeable.
It turned out to be a fairly strenuous trek; 5 hours
of solid hiking with some of the descent on steep, slippery, muddy paths
scarcely a foot wide with steep drop offs.
It certainly tested our trail craft! Eventually we passed through Monte
Piatto on the way down, which led us to a safer, better maintained trail. It
was a great hike but it was also a welcome relief when our hotel and its little
harbor of small boats hove into view!
That night it was early to dinner and early to bed for a
good night’s sleep. We would need it;
the next day we were leaving for Switzerland.
This adventure continues with the next post, entitled “Road Trip to Switzerland”, and will be published in a few days.
I'm sure glad you made it to share your stories with us. I miss that region albeit you went to towns I've not heard of. Oh, there is so much more to Italy than only here where we are. Each region so different from the other. It's good to get out and explore.
ReplyDelete