Menaggio, Lake Como

23 June Today we left our Venice hotel by water taxi and were dropped at Piazza Roma where we schlepped our bags through the bus station. I stood by our bags while Gary picked up our rental car at Avis. We got a little ( and I mean little...) Fiat Punto. I told Gary that I really didn't think that we would be able to fit all of luggage in but he assured me that we could and that it would be best to have a small car here for parking and driving through tight spots. Of course, he's right on that one and he was able to fit in the luggage somehow.

At that point we found the autostrade and drove to Milan. We were going about 140 kph (around 90 mph) and many people were passing us ( I don't think there is a limit or at least it is unenforced if there is-- It's not posted) We couldn't go any faster because our car is pathetic when it comes to having any power....

In Italy, nothing screams "American Tourist" louder than a guy wearing a flowered Hawaiian shirt.

Milan is a difficult city to drive in but with only a few wrong turns, we were able to find a parking garage about a mile away from the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. We walked and were able to be there the required twenty minutes before our reservation to see The Last Supper by Da Vinci.

The sign at the entry said that all reservations were taken through the end of July. I was very happy that I had made reservations and payment so far ahead. They allow twenty people into the refectory of the church where the painting is located on one whole wall for fifteen minutes only. We rented an audio guide that gave some background information in to what we were seeing.

Gary had seen the painting once before in the early 1990s when they were only about halfway done with the most recent restoration. I enjoyed seeing this very famous work of Da Vinci's and am glad that we were able to fit it into our schedule. Gary also wanted me to mention that we were very amused as we walked through the gift shop on our way out..... There with all the other "Lord's Supper" gift items were many copies of the book, The DaVinci Code.

We hit the autostrade again and drove to Como where we transitioned to a smaller road to head up the west side of Lake Como. The drive was absolutely gorgeous. We were actually just a few miles from Switzerland in the southern part of the Alps. We finally got checked into our hotel, the Grand Hotel Menaggio around 5:30p.m. Our room is #318 and we are on the top floor with a view of the lake and a little balcony.

We headed down to a little restaurant on the edge of the lake, just a short hike from our hotel. We stopped on the way to have a drink around eight and then walked over to the restaurant 30 minutes later. The hotel next to the restaurant had a private party outside and they had a great female singer who everyone got to enjoy (including our waitress :-). We really did Italian dining tonight as we didn't finish until 11 p.m. after which we stopped for a scoop each of gelato. Was one of the best deals so far as it only cost one Euro each.

Dinner was great-- I ordered mixed salad. They have such great tomatoes here in Italy in the summer. They are not like the ones we have to buy in the states that have not been allowed to ripen on the vine. Also I've decided that it's good balsamic and extra virgin olive oil from now on for me as my salad dressing of choice. My first course after that was an absolutely fine black noodles and cheese dish. As my second course, I had Scallopini in Vino Blanco - yummy!.... What a neat evening. Oh yes, I had a little pitcher of some nice local white wine... nice.

24 June After a very nice buffet breakfast on the open air patio at our hotel, we bought tickets on the ferry to go to Bellagio. The shape of Lake Como is basically a big upside down y with Bellagio at the point where the two arms join. We spent some time strolling down the promenade enjoying the scenery and, of course, taking lots of pictures. Everything here looks like it could be on a picture postcard. As we walked on we realized we were at the entrance to the gardens of Villa Melzi d'Eril. We paid our six euros each for entrance to take a pleasant self guided tour of the beautiful gardens (lots of picture postcards! or as I was thinking.... lots of screen savers for my computer :-) of which we will try to include a few on this journal entry. I think we took at least 200 pictures there :-). The villa was built between 1808-1810 by Francesco Melzi d'Eril, Vice President of the Italian Republic founded by Napoleon. Though the villa is still private property, it is a national landmark.

Afterward, we strolled through the main shopping streets of Bellagio, of course as it's a hilly town, most of the streets are up stairs. We filled our water bottles at the old water fountain just like they did centuries ago.

We caught the ferry back to Menaggio in time to relax a little before thinking about dinner...... and now, a real treat... Gary will write some of his observations tonight... (I warned you :-) **********************************************************************************************

I would often make comments at dinner about things to say in the blog. Tonight, Bonnie replied, "Why don't you just write it?", so that is what I'm doing..... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Italy, nothing screams "American Tourist" louder than a guy wearing a flowered Hawaiian shirt. Or a guy with shorts and knee-high white socks, pulled taut, with bright white sneakers, purchased just before the trip. Got to look ship shape.

After we got off the ship, we've started eating at a ristorante, under the umbrellas on the sidewalk watching the world go by. In Venice, we were in a residential area with few tourists. At our first dinner in Menaggio, we ate in town at a very local restaurant and we continued a little game we started in Venice, I call it "Tourist?". The goal is to see if a person or group of people entering the area under observation are tourists (from any country) or locals. Locals are easy to spot by their dress, and then if you hear them speak, or see them interact with other locals already in the observation area. I've found that Italian men have a true sense of style. Walking down a beautiful garden path in the heat of the afternoon, wearing an impeccable ensemble of slacks, shirt, tie, and jacket. Looking good. Wow, is it hot, they must be sweating like pigs under all that, but they look good. Another sense of style is perhaps more refined. Funny looking shoes, no socks, maybe shorts, maybe "high water pants" that Cindy or Jeff would make endless fun of me if I ever wore. Loud colors. And the true tip off, out of shape guys, no tan with alabaster skin emblazoned with fuzzy tatoos and sleeveless shirts. Not tucked in. Sometimes too short to tuck in. This look transcends Italy. The center of this fashion style was in Corfu, Greece but it is perhaps a function of the hot sultry climate.

For women, it's more difficult to guess if they are local. Butt too big, pants to tight? Hard to tell. This is everywhere. Butt too big, stomach too big, sunburned, binkini? Definitely tourist. Usually English or German. Au Naturel on the beach in Croatia, definitely German tourist. No underwear? Definitely local.... Flowery dresses? Tourist. Sneakers? Tourist. High heels, long walk in the heat? Hard to tell.... we've seen a lot of this, both on those we know are tourists and those we know are locals.

So we went out or our hotel last night about 7:30 PM to explore the town, have some drinks and then dinner. The town is a 5 minute walk from the hotel. We got to the hotel lobby, and I quickly spotted people "hovering". I remarked to Bonnie that "we must be the youngest people at this hotel" and that the people looked like they were ready to stampede to dinner as soon as the restaurant in the hotel opened. Every time we see someone younger than us now in the hotel, she points them out and says, "See? We're not the youngest ones here." We are, however, in the youngest 10% of the hotel population. We had seen the menu prominently displayed by the elevator for dinner each day. There are two menus. A very nice flowerly font, all classic Italian dishes, and the highest prices we've seen, even higher than Venice. Then, there is a menu with a set price, 38 euros. The font is very cursive, with Italian, English, and German translations including some cute mis-translations. You get your antipasta, and choices for 1st and 2nd courses, and choices for dessert. They look pretty good, but with those Italian descriptions, they could make dirt pie sound good. Last night we passed on the dinner at the hotel. But tonight, we decided to take the plunge and give it a try. After all, we had been drinking wine on our balcony for a couple of hours. With more wine for dinner, we didn't want to have to find our way back.

The hotel restaurant is under a roof, but with open walls facing the lake. Beautiful views. Dinner starts at 8 PM tonight. Last night, it was 7:30 PM. They were lining up at 7 to go in. We arrive at a fashionably late 8:15 PM, early for dinner for most of our trip post-ship. Man, the place is packed. We got the last table, three or four rows back from the seats with the front view of the lake. There must have been 40 or 50 tables already filled. In just 15 minutes. We must be eating at the Southwest Airlines equivalent of hotel fare.

Our table already was set for 2 people, so no silverware to remove. This is also a chance to show off the efficiency of the staff and to remove silverware with a flourish. It wasn't to happen for us tonight, there was no extra silverware. Each place had a bread plate with a very institutional looking roll on it. I looked around at the other tables and did not see any bread baskets. Oh well, bread isn't good for you anyway. But they did have butter. No olive oil, no balsamic vinegar. This must be one fancy restaurant.

The couple next to us, must have been in their 80's. Definitely locals (locals meaning from Italy). Each had a glass of wine. One glass. And were having their appetizer when we sat down, a slice of cantaloupe, melone. A waiter arrives. He looked very English in his face. A long nose and stretched out face, not a young guy by any means. Wearing black jacket, pants, white shirt, black bow tie. Very nice Italian-accented English, and we placed our order. Very prompt service too.

Meanwhile, the guy next to us is coughing up some very nice phlegm. A good loose cough, lots of noisy stuff in that throat to work on. And he did. The lady was very proper and elegant. Some more coughing and gurgly noises. It sounded like he got it all cleared out.

Ah, here comes our water. Still, of course, and wine. Bonnie got a glass of white wine, and I got a 1/2 bottle of their house red wine. Big spenders, we fit right in, I guess. Other restaurants would offer a 1/2 liter pitcher of their house wine, quite the bargain. But the hotel restaurant was too nice for that. The wine guy was dressed in black pants and a snappy red jacket, military cut just above his waist, something like Eisenhower wore. Gold buttons and I really like that gold braid on his shoulders. White shirt, black bow tie. Maybe 10 years younger than the guy in black who took our order. With a good flourish, he opened our water and poured it. Quite a good show. Then, on the the wine. The bottle had our room number written on it. Haven't seen that before. What's up with that? With practiced twists of his hands, he got out the cork and gave it a good smell. A quick pour for me to taste. It was a very undistinguished wine, and I hope undistinguished price as well, and I said it was fine. It was too young to have had a chance to have gone bad.

Ah, here comes our appetizer. A young woman wearing black pants, and a white jacket, same military cut style as the wine guy with red jacket. Her jacket also had gold buttons and gold braid. But of those wearing that color and style of jacket, she was the only one with gold braid on the shoulders. We must have the finnest waiters the hotel has to offer. Our waiters are all "gold braid class" waiters. Our appetizer was "chicken salad". it was pieces of chicken, on a few pieces of lettuce, along with some mushy red bell peppers. It was OK. Bonnie remarked that it didn't seem very Italian. I commented that I was certain the chickens were Italian, and the peppers were too. We weren't sure about the lettuce.

We finished the small portions in maybe 5 minutes. Zoom, the plates were whisked away. The couple next to us, Mr. & Mrs. Phlegm, now that his throat was clear, had moved from their 1st dish to their second. Whoa, Nelly, they're going too fast for us! Little did we know....

Within a couple of minutes of our dishes being whisked away, another young women in black pants and white jacket brought our next course. I had the Tortellini with a meat stuffing. Bonnie had pasta noodles with tomatoes and mushrooms. Hers looked good. Mine looked better. Mine was better, as it turns out. My tortellini looked like little egg rolls, two on the plate next to each other, one slightly askew on top, and covered in a cheese sauce. Bonnie was able to locate up to three pieces of mushrooms in hers. And some tomato sauce. I tasted hers, it was pretty bland. Mine was "OK". I was starting to realize that we had signed up for an expensive Italian institutional fare menu.

Zoom, our plates were whisked away again. People in both white and red jackets seemed to be certified to remove dirty dishes. The black jackets only seemed capable of taking orders. By now, the Phlegm's were on dessert. I think his throat was going to be OK now for the rest of the night. We spotted two couples younger than us in the crowd. I wondered if I could get a picture of this. No, too conspicuous. Wait, Bonnie said someone else was taking pictures. But the flash was due to lightning. Whoa, protect the guests, batten down the hatches. They initiated the protection of the guests by closing off the open veranda with a sliding set of glass panels. Boy, there is no breeze in here and it's getting hot. Now the wind is starting to blow. A storm is a'brewin'.

Out comes our main dish. Bonnie had a beef steak and it had something to do with liver. From the menu, I thought it was stuffed with liver, and I thought it was already too close to me for my liking. I had a pork loin, with little tiny bones on it like rib bones. But they were smaller than any rib bones I've ever seen for any critter. Must have been a baby pig or pigmy or something. It looked good though. I was soon to be disappointed again.

My pork was kind of mushy. I wondered how they were able to obtain that texture, and if they worked hard to do so. Bonnie wondered where the liver went, none to be seen or tasted. It looked good, it wasn't overcooked at all. With the all clear signal for the liver, I took a taste. It was pretty good. Cooked to a medium, medium-rare level. Good texture. Oh, they also had some spinach with little taste and a small heap of mashed potatoes with some "stuff" in them to give them some texture. They were pretty good.

By now, the Phlegm's had left, as they had finished their dessert. The front row of tables was also cleared out, as was most of the next row. The crowd was starting to thin. It was, after all, about 9 PM, must be getting near their bed time. Now, it started to rain. More lightning.

Ah, time for dessert. With the rest of the silverware removed, only a big spoon remained. It had been horizontally placed above the plates. The waiter in charge of silverware came over and deftly rotated the spoons down to the right to now be positioned for action when the dessert arrives. What are those spots on the spoons? I rubbed mine on the napkin, but some spots remained. Scraped it with my fingernail with no sign of success. Upon close examination, I decided that it was some antique piece of crud that had fused to the spoon. Oh well, it was a sterile antique piece of crud, and you would hardly notice it. We both had the tiramisu. It was just OK. More tables empty. People still left at their tables are finishing their wine. With the room number written on the label. Our wine is gone. Our water has about 1/2 the bottle left. No room number on the bottle. For some reason, the local town council has decreed that the water will be shut off every night at about 11 PM until 6 AM. Some signs say until 7 AM. We aren't sure which it is. And the water was still on last night at midnight. They also say to not drink the tap water, since it will be shut off. What are they doing to the water? One sign says they do this to save water. We figured that no one uses much water during those hours, so they won't save much water. But they obviously don't want to inconvenience their customers. Perhaps the water is on strike, we don't really know, but think that it would be good to have some extra water tonight. So we decide with the wine gone, and our nighttime supply of water secure, we might as well leave. We get out of there in just under one hour. It usually takes us that long to just get our appetizers any other night.

As we leave, I noticed that there is a table off to the side with a bunch of wine bottles on it. The bottles had been opened, but now have corks halfway inserted. A room number is on each label. These people are eating at the hotel every night, and if they don't finish the wine, they store it for the next night. I guess they think the food is pretty good. And I had thought that they were saving time by ringing up our bill as they cleaned the table. With the room number on the wine bottle, they could scan the bar code and charge it to our room as they tossed the empty bottle in the trash. Would make them more efficient. We might have been able to finish dinner in 50 minutes instead of 60. Oh well... I hope this is our last experience with Italian Grand Hotel dinner fare.

I did forget to mention that about 90% of the diners appeared to be locals, perhaps up for the weekend from Milano. I only spotted one flowered shirt. And another table with a couple with young children, obviously Americans. White sneakers.

Overall, our dinner was like a fine Italian sports car. Full of style, but no "go". Where can I get one of those jackets with gold braid?

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It's Bonnie again!.... As this is the night of the Festival of San Giovanni (St John), on which there are fireworks on the little island of Comacina, I had hoped to go. The boat that the hotel had arranged for a group of guests fell through and we wouldn't be able to drive to the area because the roads were closed early. I was quite disappointed until, as Gary has already mentioned, there was a thunderstorm with heavy rain..... Oh, well, I guess some things are just meant to be......

25 June After an outdoor breakfast at the Grand Hotel Menaggio, we spent some time going through the hundreds of pictures that Gary has taken the last five days. We picked quite a few and got them ready to upload to this journal at the internet cafe down the road. We walked down there and they were closed... oops, it's Sunday.

We decided to drive south along the lake to Tremezzo to check out Villa Carlotta. After finding the parking spot (which can be very difficult here sometimes & I'm sure glad we have this tiny car now!) and paying our 7.5 euros each, we entered the grounds and were greeted by some beautiful terraced stairways to the villa entrance. After many pictures, we toured the villa which had many beautiful works of art. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed. Gary did sneak one picture though when the guards weren't in the room of Eros & Psyche, the same statue that Gary bought for me (in Italy) for my birthday two years ago. The one in the villa is also a copy of the original which is in the Loevre but this one is about three or four times larger than ours. The gardens were very nice but we liked the ones yesterday better. One side note that I find sad is that Carlotta for whom this villa was built had three children by the time of her death at 23 years of age. She rarely spent any time here.

We stopped at the little restaurant/bar on the villa grounds for lunch. We each had panini- mine was tomato, mozzarella & oregano and was very good. We decided to try to visit the Villa del Balbianello and had read the best way to get there was from Isola d Comacina, the little restaurant where we had reservations for dinner (it's the only restaurant on the island). After a very difficult time finding a place to park our little Fiat, we walked and walked trying to find where we were to catch a boat over to the small island. Of course, now it started to rain again (thunder/lightening too!). I was beginning to feel like we might not make it over when Gary was able to purchase a round trip to the island on Luigi's private boat.

We arrived on the island around four and there is just a path around it and a second path that was closed. We walked along the water toward the old church we knew was there and discovered little barges tied up in the water and other spots on the island where there were lots of fireworks set up which were not yet exploded. Is iot possible that we might get to see fireworks tonight? Our only problem is now it's 5:15p.m. and our reservations are for "between 7 and 8". We walked to the other end of the island and discovered a little snack area. It's a great place to people watch. The funny boat races which are a part of the festival are taking place and we can watch them from the island. There are two men per boat and they are rowing while standing up. Each boat has the name on it of a small town in this area of the lake. It stopped raining but now at 6:30 it has started again. No umbrella-- what an adventure.. I have my hat and the big tree we're sitting under to protect me.

The restaurant opens at 7p.m. but even though we've been waiting for three hours, we decide to walk up at 7:15, really early for dining in Italy. When we arrive we are the second couple and are rewarded with the best views of the house. The patio overlooks both sides of this arm of Lake Como.

Locanda dell'Isola Comacina has a rich history and has been open since 1947 and has served the same menu since then. Check out www.locanda-isola-comacina.com. We start tomato & lemon slices with oregano and olive oil and a loaf of bread (Benvenuto calls it "friendly bread"). Then comes appetizers of different veggies including some fantastic baked onions (he told Gary how to fix so we'll be trying it out when we get home) and ham (carved at the table) and thin slices of salted beef. We wer also offered a bottle of still water and a bottle of local white wine. Benvenuto introduced himself to us and then shook our hands upon learning that we are here in celebration of our 30th anniversary. The second course is what they call trout salmon (I'll have to check that one online..) which has been cooked over the fire as most of the things on the menu are. One fish is skinned at the table for us and placed on our plates to which salt, fresh lemon juice, olive oil and fresh cracked pepper are then added and served to us. This is the best fish I've had in a long time. The third course is chicken (I forget the name) which had also been done over the fire and a small green salad. Then next comes a giant 1/2 wheel of parmesan and a generous piece is sliced out at our table and handed to us. Yum! Then the last course is sliced sweet oranges and vanilla gelato covered with a delightful orange liquor. At this time comes the ritual of the telling of the history of the island while burning a pot of brandy. The lights are turned out and with much flourish, he stirs the burning contents of the pot occasionally lifting a ladle out and spilling it back into the pot, a blue flame as it falls. After he is done telling the story, he adds the brandy mixture with coffee and serves everyone.

This dinner was very delicious, and somehow quite magical and I'm so glad we went. I highly recommend it if you are ever in the Lake Come area between March and October to go enjoy this experience yourself. Check out his web site.

After a ride back to the mainland in Luigi's boat, we drove back to the hotel. It was 11 p.m. as we passed Villa Charlotta and we realized that there were fireworks starting directly across the lake in Bellagio. We stopped the car and enjoyed a beautiful show for nearly thirty minutes so I got my fireworks fix.... :-)