a few days off from our year off

Tuesday night the Palio festivities went on a bit too long for me. The DJ down in the piazza was still going strong after midnight, people were walking around the city drunk and talking loudly. The schedule said the DJ didn't start until Thursday night, so I was in somewhat of a panic- if this was the level of festivities on Tuesday night, what was the rest of the week going to be like? John had been hankering to go somewhere, so in a flurry on Wednesday morning I looked up train schedules and booked hotels.

We decided to go north to Lake Como, hoping for some cooler weather. The 10:30 train from Passignano started us on our long day of train hopping. It was brutally hot in Florence, even hotter in Milan, and even hotter in our train car from Milan to Como, so we were a bit concerned. But pulling into Como, there was a nice breeze. We checked into our hotel and finally relaxed.

John's parents visited the region this May on a hiking trip and had kindly given us their itineraries, so the next morning we took the funicular up to Brunate for a hike from there up and along the ridge, and then back down to Torno further along the lake. It was overcast and lovely. We climbed up old stone mule paths to a little town at the ridge. From there you can climb up some stairs to the lighthouse. At the bottom of the stairs was an older man with many bags. John kindly offered to give him a hand, and not only did he readily take up John's offer, but he gave John the keys to the lighthouse and told him to open it up. We wondered whether he did this every morning. The view from the lighthouse was lovely, and then we continued on our way.

The trail continues climbing along the ridge and then enters a forest. It's very pretty and you can catch glimpses of the lake far down below through the trees. We're in the forest for quite a bit, enough to get a bit bored, when the trail finally starts heading down. And heading down. And heading down. At a certain point there are flat slabs of stone pushed vertically into the ground which serve as stairs. We go down, and down and down the stairs. My legs are beginning to tremble a bit from all the downhill, clearly I should be in better shape. But finally we get to the bottom, find a restaurant with a lovely view of the water, and rest. We were both duly impressed that the Stephens' had managed this hike as only the first of many.

From Torno we took the boat back to Como, grabbed our stuff, and treated ourselves to a taxi to our hotel in Cernobbio (since the reviews said it was a 3km climb up from the town). We went swimming in the pool and swore that the next day we would do nothing. But Friday dawned and the lake looked beautiful, and of course we decided to get out and see some other towns. We took the trail from the hotel down into the town (ow! ow! ow! as we took each stair) and caught the boat to Villa Carlotta, an 18th Century Villa surrounded by a botanic garden (they had redwood trees!). We got to the town around lunchtime just as a few drops of rain started to fall, so we dashed into an arcade and found a place to eat. As we sat and lunched, the rain increased until it was a full downpour. You couldn't see the other side of the lake, then you could barely see the lake as the rain got heavier and heavier. It cooled everything off even more and John and I had to put on warmer shirts. John and I both agreed it was the best part of the trip.

Now we're back in Passignano. Today is the big Palio, and then everything should calm down here again.