Menaggio - 27th May

Menaggio - 27th May

 

There will be a market in the square - no there isn't - its straight out the front door of the hotel - save for the setting this could be a Sunday street market anywhere in the world - the recipe must be universal - the vendors and their products would not be out of place in QE 2 square -

 

We browse until our hunger guides us towards the square - cappucinos, breads, jams, croissants and yoghurt in a setting designed by the plaguerisation of an Italian postcard


 

 

 

We sit awhile and watch the sunday crowd - the fully outfitted middle aged Giro d'Italia wantabes gather for their after ride coffee - I smile - the Ripe Tomato café perched as the gatekeeper to a Harvey Norman complex cannot expect to compete - riders of a similar age but more rotund figure relive their salad days on bikes with powerful and noisy engines designed both to transport and impress their leather clad female passengers - everyone is happy


 

We drift down towards the ferry terminal - we pause awhile to watch huge ducks that could have just escaped from the window of an upmarket toy store while they bicker amongst themselves for a share of the bread thrown into the water by an enterprising tourist car driver - there are multiple beneficiaries here - the ducks enjoy their scraps, the driver attracts tourists to his sales counter and the huge fish in the lake swim beneath the bickering ducks to clean up the crumbs that escape the ducks and sink below the surface of the clear water.

 

Clearly there is a daily migration of tourists from one to another of the three towns each located on confluence of the three arms of Lake Como - We board the ferry and head across the lake to Bellagio, tomorrow we will head to Verenna.

 

 

It is Sunday and the international and national tourists are joined in Bellagio by hundreds of local daytrippers - the township is pleasantly populated - enough to give it life and bustle but not enough to corrupt the experience - we wander past the shops and cafes on the waterfront - we are surprised - prices are reasonable and the goods of high quality - this is not like the tourist traps that we have encountered in other places - we are encouraged to move away from the water and up the steep shop lined steps to the higher terraces - leather, Italian silk scarfs, Murano glass, handbags, shoes, pottery, paintings, gelato, ice cream, piaza , pasta and all things Italian - the shops all have style!

 

We pause - dine at a Trattoria that looks over the lake towards Menaggio - Bernie laughs at the self obsessed English girls at the next table - says one "The Italians do Piaza well you know! "

 

Later in the evening we are destined to sit beside another group of English diners - one of them battles to eat pasta from a bowl with a set of knives and forks - says she "at least with Cod and Chips you know how to start"

 

We wander down towards the pier - Bernie poses with her Lamborgini Blanco

 

 

 

 

We wander past Steve Buckle's Italian cousins drinking beer, comparing their motocycles and telling war stories about their weekend touring bikes around Lake Como.

 

 

Back on the ferry to Menaggio - a nap - some writing -

 

Up to a rainbow spanning the Lake - off to a Trattoria for dinner - finish it with a gelato in the square and a glass of wine in the hotel foyer - Another day in paradise .