The weather finally caught up to us! Jessi, out cruise director, had strategically changed the Lake Como boat trip to Monday instead of today. We ate breakfast at the Hilton and bundled up for a fun day.
Como is located at the southern end of Lake Como.
Here we are making our way over to the funicular railway .. Funicolare ComoBRUNATE :
It's been operating since 1894. The rise is 1627 feet at a 55-degree incline .. steeeep.
We got up to the top and the .. heavens opened !!
Lightning, thunder, sheets of rain. At the top we had only about 50-feet of visibility.
yikes! The guides thought it best to return down the mountain on the next funicular.
This is what we might have seen (borrowed image) on a clearer day :
After we returned shoreside, the rain lightened up a bit. We decided to continue on the city tour. Enjoy.
We walked over to .. Piazza Alessandro Volta and his statue. He's credited with inventing the battery.
He lived in Como from 1745-1827.
Just adjacent to one of the oldest piazzas in town, was the oldest house. They were still in the process of peeling back layers upon layers of plaster to reveal what the walls looked like.
This used to be the main street coming up from Rome a few thousand years ago!
Right next to a :
Basilica di San Fedele .. want to go inside? sure you do
now on to the duomo ..
Cathedral di Santa Maria Assunta, 1457-1498. Since it was Sunday, and church services were being held .. we couldn't go in to see the inside. Here's a look from the west side in the .. Piazza del Duomo :
Here's the bishop's house :
We went back to the Hilton to dry off and take a little break before walking back into town along a beautiful waterfront path. Just across from the hotel is the magnificent Villa Olmo, built in 1780.
All throughout these palaces along the waterfront, these bushes were shaped in cute 'gumdrop' shapes!
Here's Jan with Como in the background :
We ate lunch at an outdoor cafe, some paninis and then a cup of gelato, and walked back to the hotel, taking some more pictures along the way, can you believe it?
Dennis and Patti, our friends from Minnesota from the cruise, invited us out to dinner back in town at Numeronove. We enjoyed lasagna, veal, and mussels. It was very yummy!
Wet and overcast was the weather,
but eager and sunny was our spirit,
as we traipsed along gawking at the sights,
intently listening to our guide,
hoping our next bathroom break was soon,
and a gelato was in the plans!
Tomorrow, we hope, better weather to appreciate a fantastic boat ride along Lake Como.
Ciao!
Meglio Tardi Che Mai
Better late than never is right! So glad you’re getting to enjoy some of Italy and I hope your weather is much better tomorrow. Our visit to the village of Bellagio is one of our fondest memories when we lived in Italy.
ReplyDeleteSuch great pics. Phone or Camera? Glad the weather lightened a little
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful corner of the world. Where next?
The start of the tour looks wet! Fun ride on the funnicular - they're cool! Glad the rain let up a bit; we've had lots of rain this afternoon/evening and expect to have more the next several days. Glad to see the updates are still coming even when you're off the ship!
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