Friday 4th September: Cool morning, warm sunny day, blue skies then a late storm: 18°C to 24ºC.
Santa Croce: 15K: 11.00am to 2.30pm: Lazy day walking around Bellagio, Lake Como
Train from Chiavenna
Waiting for ferry Verena to Bellagio
Lake Como, ferry to Bellagio
Coffee break promenade Bellagio
Lost in Bellagio
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Lunch in the park Bellagio
Newcastle cycling crew Bellagio
Beautiful evening on Lake Como
Ferry from Bellagio to Verena
We've missed the train - 8pm cuppa
Highlight of the day was meeting up with Graham's cycling friends from Newcastle in Bellagio where they were midway through a cycle tour with Como Cycling tours. Such a co-incidence that they should be there on the day that we planned to take a joy ride on a ferry to Bellagio on Lake Como Northern Italy. One of the cyclists, Peter Shiels and Graham, were part of a 5 man group who surfed the world together for several years back in the 70's.
Our day started with a leisurely breakfast in Santa Croce - boiled eggs, meusli, bread, tea and coffee. It's 8.42 when we catch the bus from Santa Croce down the valley to Chiavenna, to meet the train connection to Colica and second connection to Verenna, from where we connected to a ferry, one of dozens on Lake Como, to Bellagio, on a peninsular at the junction of the 2 arms of Lake Como. Ten minutes later and we're on a packed ferry to Bellagio, the most touristy of all Lake Como villages. At 11am, coffee time, we find spot on the promenade to boil our billy, much to the discern of well-to-do tourists.
Then a 2hr walk around the Peninsular to Pesscalo, a small fishing village behind Bellagio, up and over to the other side to the Gardens of Mezli, and back to the promenade for lunch. At 2.30, time to catch up with Peter and Gail, Peter is one of Graham's surfing buddies from way back. They're with a group of pseudo cyclists from New castle staying at the Silvio Hotel behind Bellagio, and a short walk up the hill again on a busy road finds us sitting in the beer garden overlooking Lake Como. We're there for almost 3hrs, with one by one the other friends join in - they'd been for a 1200m cycle up a hill somewhere that morning.
Jenny has timed the connections of the ferry/train/train/bus back to Sante Croce to perfection, and we leave in time to get the 4.45pm ferry. It's late, and after a sprint up the hill to catch the 6.24pm train,arriving with 10 seconds to spare, it's 15 minutes late leaving. We arrive in Colico and we've missed our scheduled connection to Chiavenna and have to wait another hour - time for a late afternoon coffee outside the train station. The 8.04pm train gets into Chiavenna at 8.45pm and we've missed the last bus up the valley to Santa Croce. We're in Italy. The trains are cheap - for a reason. The shop keeper kindly rings us a taxi, a local who knows John from Santa Croce, a friend of Mark and Susan whose house we are in and 20 minutes later we're back "home" drinking beer and celebrating a lovely day - just in time before another storm cracks.
But for us, our journey is over and in the morning we will be returning to Zurich to fly home. Ian's Dad has had a turn, and is in Redcliffe Hospital, not expected to recover. He's a week short of 95 and worked as a professional fisherman until 86 - a work ethic to be envied. We'll return next year to finish our walk.