Varenna

I arrived here yesterday after an uneventful trip. Varenna is a small town on the eastern shore of Lake Como. It is very picturesque – that is, I’m sure it is if you could see through the drizzle and low cloud. Yesterday afternoon there was snow on the surrounding hilltops. I had dinner in the hotel’s restaurant – the first time that I have been staying in a hotel with a restaurant, but I had checked out the menus of all the other restaurants in town in the afternoon. Once again I have a room on the 4th , top, floor – no lift – looks like it is an extra floor that has been added into the roof space. All the floors below have a big shuttered window that looks out to the lake. I have a funny little semicircle about ½ m in radius on the floor. I can lay on the floor and look out at the ferries coming and going, lucky me. I do have a skylight, so there is enough light. I’m hopeful for a clear night so I can see stars lying in bed.

This morning after breakfast I walked up a hill to look at a ruined castle. Visibility was poor from all the lookouts and I gave up at a closed gate with Private property, beware of the guard dog ‘ signs. The paths down were quite slippery.

Lake Como is sort of an inverted Y shape. Varenna is near the junction of the 2 arms. Late this morning I caught a ferry to the far northern end. It stopped at a lot of small towns. I had a coffee and sandwich-like thing and then came back. The boat on the way north had a downstairs inside area with fairly hard-to-see-through windows. The upstairs area had a cover, but the whole area was subject to wind-driven drizzle. The seats were all wet. I decided that getting to Colico dry and warm without seeing anything was worse than getting there frozen having seen everything. The return boat was a much bigger affair with clean windows so sitting inside was an easy decision. However I am still trying to thaw out.

Tomorrow I will probably look at a few gardens around here and maybe Bellagio or Menaggio - 2 nearby towns before going to Milan on Saturday.