We made our way from Lugano to Bellagio. The trip involved a train ride to Como and a boat ride along one of the two legs of lake Como. After our customary pizza for breakfast, we headed to the train station to grab our last Swiss train for the next three and a half weeks. The Swiss-German and Italian stereotypes kept true. Our train was on time to the minute until the last Swiss town on its route. From there the train left late and, of course, arrived late in Como city. We even went through a custom inspection that profiled our neighbours for a control and skipped over the harmless Canadians.
Walking through Como, we see we left behind the orderly, clean and carefully maintained streets and buildings for a noisy, busy, with slightly damaged buildings and streets: a cobble stone missing here, an iron curtain not quite able to fully retract there, some tags and graffiti on the trashcans and buildings. Nothing overly broken or dirty, just that lived-in erstwhile beauty to expect from any Italian town.
As we could not reserve our boat online we took the train and showed up at the ferry ticket office. That’s how we learned that the ferries are very popular and their schedule, while posted, is subject to change. A couple of boats seemed to have been canceled and we had to wait an hour for the next slow boat to Bellagio. It gave us just enough time for a coffee, some water and a little walk through Como.
The slow boat from Como to Bellagio takes 2 hours with many stops along the way. We found a spot in the sun on the upper deck and after putting on a good coat of sunscreen, we enjoyed the sun and the views of the lake. Not the most efficient way but definitely relaxing and enjoyable.
As we got closer the Bellagio the boat got more crowded with a largest influx about halfway through our trip. Seeing people ready to force their way onto the already full boat gave us the strong impression that we’ll have to plan our ferry use judiciously. We’ve made plans to investigate options in more details tomorrow as we explore our small town for the next few days. We understand that being stuck just across the lake with no ferry available would mean a two-hour bus trip home. Not the end of the world, but definitely something we would not look forward to.
Since we arrived in Como and now Bellagio we realized that Lugano’s lack of tourist attraction might have been one of its secret benefits. Indeed, we found the human density to have skyrocketed since we crossed over to Italy and the iconic lake Como. We’re also in the last week of peak tourist season, something we haven’t had to deal with for a long time. All of it means we’ll get a little squeezed out of our money and we’ll have to plan more ahead than we are used to if we want optimal meal experiences.
