See Me Now

I’m home now and reflecting upon the many lovely places we visited. As you I know, I crossed Torino off of my fantasy-live-in-Europe list, but I continued doing reconnaissance as we traveled the beautiful lake communities. When we reached Locarno, Switzerland I immediately settled into a state of mellow contentedness. Maybe Locarno is the place!    It’s at the north end of Lake Maggiore at the base of many majestic alps. Beautiful viewing in every direction. You could live down close to the lake or further up the hillside accessible by funicular, cable car, and chair lift. The lakeside pedestrian area was clean – free of graffiti and cigarette butts. It didn’t seem all that crowded, although we were off hiking during prime daylight hours.  Locarno’s population numbers around 15,000 which makes it larger than Orta or Bellagio and, I think, not 100% tourist dominated. It seemed like in Locarno, you would have more access to ‘normal’ services and retailers. Not Target or ...

When we were on our own, food was a challenge.   The biggest problem is that in Italy, restaurants serve lunch from around 12:00 pm to 2:30 pm.   Then they close and re-open for dinner at 7:00 or 7:30 pm. But our schedule usually delivered us to our new destination around 3:00 pm.   We were famished by then and couldn’t last until 7:00 pm for food.   So we’d find some sort of sub-par café or a grocery store and get whatever we could. The hiking tour was entirely different because Mt Sobek and our guide, Giovanna, had it all worked out.   They scheduled ahead of time with restaurants or farmhouses who provided amazing, multi-course meals made from locally produced meats and cheeses, and from beautifully prepared fish and game. It was more than all of us were used to eating but it was fantastic.   In Italy, it goes like this: first an antipasto platter that includes cheeses, lean slim-cut meats, and maybe some veggies or olives. Second, a pasta cour...

It’s hard not to take photo after photo of the stunning scenery surrounding the beautiful lakes in Northern Italy and Switzerland.   Following are some choice photos capturing the latter few days of our tour.  For those interested in the food (which was amazing), I’ll make a separate food porn post.    North end of Lake Maggiore View of Lake Como from our hotel roof garden           Scenes from hikes              I tried to post two panoramic video clips here but had to load them to youtube instead.  Here are the links: Link to panoramic video # 1 Link to panoramic video # 2    Scenes from Bellagio and Varenna on Lake Como Grotto in a Bellagio garden Walkway as viewed from our hotel room balcony Varenna Our entire hiking group all dolled up for our final dinner Happy me high above Lake Como    

I wrote last year about the eager-to-please Irish and the eye-rolling French.   My take on Italians is that, when it comes to tourists, they have settled into a state of good-natured resignation. If you’re a fumbling tourist, an Italian will quickly deduce what you’re trying to do and do it for you. As you’re trying to formulate the right Italian words, for example, a server will just ask cappuccino and brioche ?      More than once I’ve had a cashier scan my items at the self-check-out, or take my credit card from me and wave it over the card reader in just the right way. They have a knack for doing such things so as to impart an air of efficiency rather than impatience, although I suspect impatience is what they truly feel. This veneer of civility peels away when it comes to traffic situations – stay out of the way!  Fun sightings:     Lots of cute critters  

We’ve had two spectacular days already.   Early on Monday, we took a bus to a trailhead about 20 minutes outside of Orta. From there we hiked five miles, all of it uphill, for a total elevation gain of around 2400 feet until we reached the summit of Mottarone. Although it was overcast and foggy at the very top, the threatened rain never materialized and the views on our way up where fantastic. We looked down on Lake Orta in one direction, and on Lakes Maggiore and Varese in another.        We had another plentiful and delicious lunch at a Mottarone restaurant before bussing back down for a second night at our Orta hotel. We got back in late afternoon and had free time for the evening.   I think most of us elected to skip dinner in favor of shopping and walking and wine drinking.   This morning, Tuesday, we again boarded the bus for a 40 minute or so ride to the town of Belgirate along the west side of Lake Maggiore. From this town, we hiked along h...