I and Mathilde have a bit of a tradition, to offer each other surprise trips as birthday presents. This year, I decided to take my darling to Lago Como, up in northern Italy. Not a hard choice, since we are both rather ardent Italophiles (and I was of course keen to practice my newly B1-accredited Italian skills).
After a quick trip back home (I had after all just gotten back from my trip to Ulm, and Mathilde had been on a school trip all week as well) to pack our bags, we hit the road in our trusty Beamer. Our 1st stop was Arenzano, near Genova, where we spent our first night. It was a pretty decent hotel, and the dinner they served in their restaurant was nothing to frown upon either. After a typical Italian breakfast (that’s not really a compliment – I love Italian cuisine, but not their breakfasts, which usually consists of industrial pastries, industrial juices – although at least the coffee is usually good!), we hit the road, and arrived at our lodgings well before lunch-time. I had decided to book an Agritourismo, rather than a hotel, for this trip (an Agritourismo is kind of like farm accommodation). It seemed like a pretty nice place, although we were a bit worried about the prospects of getting sleep, since there was a wedding taking place this night (Italians are noisy enough in normal circuimstances…).
Having checked in, we headed back to Como, to explore the town for a bit. Unfortunately, the sky was ominously dark, and we feared rainfall. But it didn’t stop us from exploring town. Como is a nice enough town, with a quite spread out historic centre, typically Italian, basically. It actually seemed surprisingly un-touristy, considering how famous Lake Como is. We got some pretty nice views over the lake from the harbour, with the mist and dark sky giving making the lake seem almost mysterious.
I once more relied upon trusty Tripadvisor to find a restaurant, and we ended up having lunch in Nr. 2, a nice and cozy place called Ristorante Sociale. I liked the lively atmosphere of the place, and the fact that Italians outnumbered tourists here. The food was excellent, as well as good value for money.
Unfortunately, the weather got decidedly worse after lunch (it started pi**ing down), so we ended up doing indoors stuff during the afternoon. A bit of shopping in a nice bookshop, visiting the Duomo (rather impressive, considering the modest size of Como), and finally heading out to a villa on the other side of town for an exhibition on the Belle Epoque. It was pretty interesting actually, and the villa itself is great, with a nice garden, and superb views over the lake.
For dinner, we went to another well-noted restaurant in the old town called Nostradamus. Again, a very good choice. I liked the atmosphere (and the fact that the waitress spoke to me in English in spite of my brave attempts at Italian – shame on her!) and the place itself less than Ristorante Sociale, but the food was more interesting, I would say.
The next day, the weather was thankfully more like what we would expect from Italy this time of the year: warm, sunny. So time to explore the lake properly, then! We started off by taking the coastal drive up to Belagio, which is located kind of at the centre of Lake Como. Lake Como is kind of shaped like the character “Y” (upside down), with Belagio located at the southern side of the intersection of the three “legs”. It’s a pretty nice little town, typically Italian (meaning a lot of steep cobble-stoned streets climbing up hills, pretty pastel-coloured houses, you get the picture). It also felt pretty touristy – much more so than Como, with plenty of designer and tourist shops along the main streets.
After a couple of failed attempts (confusingly, the ferries leave from two different piers), we managed to catch a ferry to Varenna, just on the other shore across from Belagio. Varenna is smaller and more peaceful than Belagio, seemingly a bit less overrun by tourists (although there is a fair share here, too). I think on balance, I preferred it over Belagio. We had a nice stroll along its peaceful streets, taking in the nice lakeside views. We ended up having dinner in a nice cozy little restaurant on one of the streets a bit up from the lakeside, another little gem of a restaurant. Funnily enough, we had a Swedish waiter, so I ended up practicing my Swedish rather than my Italian…
After lunch, we made our way back to Belagio, for a bit of shopping and more strolling about. From there, we made our way to Lecco, which is located down the south-eastern tip of the lake (Como being on the south-western tip). Lecco is the second biggest city on the lake (after Como), and is probably the least touristy one, being quite industrialised. It certainly has a more modern feel to it than the other towns we’d visited, but we quite liked the place, although it’s perhaps less picturesque than the other places we’d been to. After a short stroll there, we made our way back to our Agriturismo (dinner time!), after a short and misguided stop at Elba (we never really found the town centre and ended up walking along residential streets, and around a huge walled garden we were never able to enter…).
This evening, we decided to dine at the Agriturismo, and that turned out to be an excellent choice! We went for the “menu di degustazione” - and what an excellent choice that was. 30 euros for antipasti, a primo (pasta, what else?) a secondo (some nice veal and pork) and a dessert, and coffee and some grappa to finish off. Pretty good value for money, if you ask me ? Especially since the quality was also absolutely excellent (all local products, apparently…). So pretty much a perfect ending for our visit at the lake then.
Alas, the next day it was time to head back towards France. Our plan was to stop over at the Pavia Charterhouse (one of the architectural wonders from the renaissance period in Lombardy, apparently), but unfortunately it was closed. So we decided to go to Pavia instead. And a very good choice, as it turned out, it was a really nice town actually! Pavia was once the capital of Lombardy, actually, until that role was taken over by Milan in the 14th century. But that does mean there is an impressive array of historic buildings, in a remarkable well-preserved and spread out historic centre. All immaculately maintained and looked after (we are after all in the North of Italy – what a contrast to Naples!). Unfortunately, most of the churches and historic monuments were also closed in Pavia, this being a Monday, but we still had a very pleasant stroll around town.
Our next stop was Monaco, where Mathilde had to pick up some papers for work! We then finally ended up in Carros at Antoine’s place, to celebrate Mathilde’s birthday properly. Great to meet up with the gang again; Marie, Gilles, Valerie and the kids were all there (pretty much set for their move to sunny California). As always, we had a great time with great food, drinks and company (and some pretty nice pressies for Mathilde, too!). That brought an end to a very nice but also rather tiring long weekend… (especially considering we’d both been travelling the week before). It’ll be nice to rest a bit in the office for a change ;-).
After a quick trip back home (I had after all just gotten back from my trip to Ulm, and Mathilde had been on a school trip all week as well) to pack our bags, we hit the road in our trusty Beamer. Our 1st stop was Arenzano, near Genova, where we spent our first night. It was a pretty decent hotel, and the dinner they served in their restaurant was nothing to frown upon either. After a typical Italian breakfast (that’s not really a compliment – I love Italian cuisine, but not their breakfasts, which usually consists of industrial pastries, industrial juices – although at least the coffee is usually good!), we hit the road, and arrived at our lodgings well before lunch-time. I had decided to book an Agritourismo, rather than a hotel, for this trip (an Agritourismo is kind of like farm accommodation). It seemed like a pretty nice place, although we were a bit worried about the prospects of getting sleep, since there was a wedding taking place this night (Italians are noisy enough in normal circuimstances…).
Having checked in, we headed back to Como, to explore the town for a bit. Unfortunately, the sky was ominously dark, and we feared rainfall. But it didn’t stop us from exploring town. Como is a nice enough town, with a quite spread out historic centre, typically Italian, basically. It actually seemed surprisingly un-touristy, considering how famous Lake Como is. We got some pretty nice views over the lake from the harbour, with the mist and dark sky giving making the lake seem almost mysterious.I once more relied upon trusty Tripadvisor to find a restaurant, and we ended up having lunch in Nr. 2, a nice and cozy place called Ristorante Sociale. I liked the lively atmosphere of the place, and the fact that Italians outnumbered tourists here. The food was excellent, as well as good value for money.
Unfortunately, the weather got decidedly worse after lunch (it started pi**ing down), so we ended up doing indoors stuff during the afternoon. A bit of shopping in a nice bookshop, visiting the Duomo (rather impressive, considering the modest size of Como), and finally heading out to a villa on the other side of town for an exhibition on the Belle Epoque. It was pretty interesting actually, and the villa itself is great, with a nice garden, and superb views over the lake.For dinner, we went to another well-noted restaurant in the old town called Nostradamus. Again, a very good choice. I liked the atmosphere (and the fact that the waitress spoke to me in English in spite of my brave attempts at Italian – shame on her!) and the place itself less than Ristorante Sociale, but the food was more interesting, I would say.
The next day, the weather was thankfully more like what we would expect from Italy this time of the year: warm, sunny. So time to explore the lake properly, then! We started off by taking the coastal drive up to Belagio, which is located kind of at the centre of Lake Como. Lake Como is kind of shaped like the character “Y” (upside down), with Belagio located at the southern side of the intersection of the three “legs”. It’s a pretty nice little town, typically Italian (meaning a lot of steep cobble-stoned streets climbing up hills, pretty pastel-coloured houses, you get the picture). It also felt pretty touristy – much more so than Como, with plenty of designer and tourist shops along the main streets. 
After a couple of failed attempts (confusingly, the ferries leave from two different piers), we managed to catch a ferry to Varenna, just on the other shore across from Belagio. Varenna is smaller and more peaceful than Belagio, seemingly a bit less overrun by tourists (although there is a fair share here, too). I think on balance, I preferred it over Belagio. We had a nice stroll along its peaceful streets, taking in the nice lakeside views. We ended up having dinner in a nice cozy little restaurant on one of the streets a bit up from the lakeside, another little gem of a restaurant. Funnily enough, we had a Swedish waiter, so I ended up practicing my Swedish rather than my Italian… 
After lunch, we made our way back to Belagio, for a bit of shopping and more strolling about. From there, we made our way to Lecco, which is located down the south-eastern tip of the lake (Como being on the south-western tip). Lecco is the second biggest city on the lake (after Como), and is probably the least touristy one, being quite industrialised. It certainly has a more modern feel to it than the other towns we’d visited, but we quite liked the place, although it’s perhaps less picturesque than the other places we’d been to. After a short stroll there, we made our way back to our Agriturismo (dinner time!), after a short and misguided stop at Elba (we never really found the town centre and ended up walking along residential streets, and around a huge walled garden we were never able to enter…).This evening, we decided to dine at the Agriturismo, and that turned out to be an excellent choice! We went for the “menu di degustazione” - and what an excellent choice that was. 30 euros for antipasti, a primo (pasta, what else?) a secondo (some nice veal and pork) and a dessert, and coffee and some grappa to finish off. Pretty good value for money, if you ask me ? Especially since the quality was also absolutely excellent (all local products, apparently…). So pretty much a perfect ending for our visit at the lake then.
Alas, the next day it was time to head back towards France. Our plan was to stop over at the Pavia Charterhouse (one of the architectural wonders from the renaissance period in Lombardy, apparently), but unfortunately it was closed. So we decided to go to Pavia instead. And a very good choice, as it turned out, it was a really nice town actually! Pavia was once the capital of Lombardy, actually, until that role was taken over by Milan in the 14th century. But that does mean there is an impressive array of historic buildings, in a remarkable well-preserved and spread out historic centre. All immaculately maintained and looked after (we are after all in the North of Italy – what a contrast to Naples!). Unfortunately, most of the churches and historic monuments were also closed in Pavia, this being a Monday, but we still had a very pleasant stroll around town.Our next stop was Monaco, where Mathilde had to pick up some papers for work! We then finally ended up in Carros at Antoine’s place, to celebrate Mathilde’s birthday properly. Great to meet up with the gang again; Marie, Gilles, Valerie and the kids were all there (pretty much set for their move to sunny California). As always, we had a great time with great food, drinks and company (and some pretty nice pressies for Mathilde, too!). That brought an end to a very nice but also rather tiring long weekend… (especially considering we’d both been travelling the week before). It’ll be nice to rest a bit in the office for a change ;-).
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