We’re on lake Como for three full days. We chose to spend the first day close to home and explore Bellagio and its neighborhoods. Being more geared toward the day visitors and short-term stays, Bellagio has plenty of restaurants but with very few focused on the quality of their craft and more on the turnover. That doesn’t mean the food is bad (or at least we haven’t found it) but that we won’t be having pizza (Napolitain or Roman style) with the level of craft we crave. We decided to try the restaurant at the very tip of the divide between the two legs of lake Como. It’s aptly named: 📍Ristorante La Punta. It costs twice as much as our Swiss pizza did but the view was wonderful, had a chill atmosphere and provided a small menu of Italian staples that are hard to miss if you have good ingredients.
By the time we were done with breakfast, the city strated to get crowded. There were lines everywhere and bunches of people taking selfies at every street corner. We had to give it to them, the village is good looking. We speed-walked through the village and headed southwest to 📍I Giardini di Villa Melzi (the Melzi Villa Gardens’).
The gardens themselves turned out to be manicured trees, shrubs and lawns. All very beautiful and organized. A sharp contrast from the slightly worn public spaces typical of Italy. We can understand how the original owners used the space to relax and decompress with its meandering paths, gorgeous lake views and walled off gardens that ensured perfect privacy from all but the people navigating the lake.
As we walked on to the 📍village of San Giovanni, we had to come to the conclusion that a lot of the lake’s real estate has sprawling gardens surrounded by walls. It gives the feel that a lot of the streets are narrow trenches. Since most of them were built before urban planning was something mandatory and not just a suggestion, it left no place for sidewalks or convenient pedestrian routes between locations. The most frequent sign you’ll see around here is “Privato”, most of them hung on locked gates or along walls. I thought the Swiss bankers were big on privacy but I think the lake Como people got them beat (or maybe that’s were Swiss bankers go to relax during the summer? That would explain a few things).
San Giovanni turned out to be small and mostly desert during the afternoon: all but one eatery was closed. We walked its streets and headed back to Bellagio to sample alternatives to the Aperol Spritz (rumor has it that it’s now uncool to go for the Aperol Sprtiz), so we tried the Hugo Spritz, which replaces Aperol with elderflower liqueur and uses mint and lemon as a garnish. It’s not entirely unlike the classic Aperol Spritz but, obviously tastes quite different. It’s herby and flowery with a little sweetness while staying fresh. Something to try!
We ended our day planning our next adventures. We had to come to terms with the fact that, while the lakes are absolutely gorgeous, travelling on said lakes is a freaking pain. If you don’t mind getting up early it’s fine, but for afternoon and evening people that don’t mind ending their hikes close to sunset and never expect to see a sunrise for their whole vacation, not so much. Also, contrary to island life where you move once (you stay in island A, explore then move to island B the next day) the out and back journey on the lakes really adds to the stress of the day. So we planned.
After an in depth look at our options and learning that most of our plans on Lake Maggiore would require 4 hours of ferry transportation each day, we canceled 4 out of the 6 days we would be spending on the lake and instead decided to spend those 4 days in Venice.
Today we learned that in towns with a tourism focus, like Bellagio that sees its population more than triple in the daytime, restaurants have just the one sitting. In most Italian cities you would see restaurants with a first service around 19:00 and a second at or after 21:00. Not around here. There’s the only one sitting so if you don’t line up near opening time you’re likely to be turned back instead of saving a spot for the second service. That’s how we ended up at the local pizza shop for diner as we showed up too late for the first sitting at the restaurant we had planned.
Places
Ristorante La Punta · Via Eugenio Vitali, 19, 22021 Bellagio CO, Italy
★★★★☆ · Italian restaurant
maps.app.goo.gl
I Giardini di Villa Melzi · Bellagio, Province of Como
Google Maps
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San Giovanni · San Giovanni, Province of Como
Google Maps
maps.app.goo.gl
Hugo (cocktail)
The Hugo is an alcoholic aperitif, originating in South Tyrol, but widespread in Triveneto, Austria, Switzerland and Germany, based on prosecco, elderflower syrup, seltzer and mint leaves.
en.wikipedia.org
