We’ve spent most of our day travelling from Bellagio to Stresa. We said our goodbyes to 📍Mr. Panino with a last breakfast of that warm, crispy and gooey goodness with a side of butter cookies. We then boarded the 12:00 ferry to Varenna (just across the lake) than waited for our first train of the day at the station’s caffè. Right at 13:35, our first train of the trip left the station.
We were soothed by the clickety-clack of the steel wheels on the polished rails until we arrived at Milano Centrale. It’s a good thing we arrived relaxed as the station seems always a hair’s breadth away from complete chaos and did not disappoint today. From the old man pushing a bicycle as if he was plowing a field without a care for who or what was in his way, all the way to families of ten waiting side by side, looking at the board wishing for their train’s binario (platform) to be announced, navigating the platforms is challenge.
We pushed through and found our platform and our train to Arona already there and waiting for us. We boarded and settled down for the next hour journey. The train line where Stresa station can be found is being upgraded so they replaced that portion of our journey with a bus. Once we made it to Arona, we and a good portion of the passengers made our way to one of the modes of transportation I loathe. Understand that being 1.9m and buses being optimized for density, my knees tend to become the lumbar support for the person sitting in front of me; hence me loathing them.
Half an hour of being squeezed in a bus later we arrived in Stresa, checked into our apartment for the next two nights, did a quick groceries for essentials like body-wash and sparkling water (yes water with bubbles is an essential) and then went out to recon breakfast options for tomorrow and have an apéro.
Our exploration allowed us to learn three things: #1 Stresa is a city where people live, it has an actual grocery store (a Carafour); #2 signs with business hours are not a thing here, you’ll find out if the panificio is open on Sunday by showing up (or asking them); #3 one needs to articulate to order apéro, if one orders limoncello spritz, one might get straight limoncello with ice in a tall glass. If that happened, and I’m not saying who it happened to, one might find their spritz to be flat and very strong and get a little tipsy from the one drink.
Stresa won us over with dinner at 📍Il Vicoletto. they have more Michelin stickers than space on their door to display them (but no star) and did not disappoint. They served us an excellent meal. Not to the level to be worth the bus ride but if the train had been running all the way as expected, that alone would have made our trip here worth it. We’ll have to see if visiting the islands tomorrow makes up the difference.
Places
Mr. Panino · Salita Grandi, 1, 22021 Bellagio CO, Italy
★★★★★ · Sandwich shop
maps.app.goo.gl
Il Vicoletto · Vicolo del Poncivo, 3, 28838 Stresa VB, Italy
★★★★★ · Restaurant
maps.app.goo.gl
