Today we decided to head back down to the bottom of the lake (!) and visit Como for the day, so we were up, breakfasted and out of the apartment fairly early to catch the hydrofoil. As I mentioned before there are 3 types of vessels plying the lake and, although this is the fastest, the trip was still scheduled to take about 50 mins.
Opposite the boat station is a church with this little boat in front.
After buying our tickets we had a little time to kill so wandered up one of Tremezzo's side streets.
Hydryfoil heading our way.
As you can see the weather looking towards Como didn't look too promising.
This is Villa Balbianello which apparently has been used in many films, including James Bond's 2006 film Casino Royale. If the weather holds good for a couple more days we'll probably visit.
A few views of the towns as we passed by, which after a while all look very similar.
Unfortunately the weather as we approached Como wasn't very interesting; flat grey skies. This is the Life Electric sculpture erected in 2015 and dedicated to Como's most famous son, the physicist Alessandro Volta.
We got here in about 35 mins and the remaining 15 minutes of scheduled time was taken up getting into the pier. After disembarking we decided we were hungry so stopped off for brunch at a well known, unmentionable, American fast food chain - and it was one of the best Fillet o' Fish I've every had.
Suitably refreshed we set off to explore the town. First stop; the cathedral which is a lovely building and reminded us a bit of Florence's Duomo in style and brickwork and apparently is the last in Italy to be built in Gothic style.
The guttering system looked very robust considerably better than those we saw in St Petersburg with their missing sections!
The inside of the cathedral wasn't particularly noteworthy and I can't find much information online- so just a few snaps. Presumably this wicked looking bloke was a priest of some sort.
And so was this stained glass window.
Unusually for a Catholic church, there were no LOLs (little old ladies) conducting their daily devotions.
We have no idea what these badges/shields represent.
Back outside for a wander around and some of the buildings look very medieval.
Made me chuckle.
This is Como's Gate Tower - an imposing fortress, 40m high, built in 1192 to defend the entrance to the city. It apparently has a massive appearance on the outside (we were too lazy to walk around it),
while this side, facing towards the city, is lightened by the four rows of arches.
The "backside" of the Duomo (I had a guide in India who kept referring go the backside of things - it never failed to make me chuckle!)
Heading to catch the funicular up to Brunate (500m above Como), we passed Como's main train station. On reflection we didn't really need to hire a car, we could have caught the train from Milan Airport to here and then got a boat or bus to Tremezzo.
A somewhat typical coffee bar at the entrance to the funicular.
Ian was somehow able to wangle an OAP discount ticket for both of us and we only had a short wait before the next carriage was due.
I managed to get myself at the back for the view but my camera didn't really like the window bars.
But we had good clear views from the top and the view over the old city was lovely.
Our plan was to walk to the lighthouse at Brunate - Faro Voltiano - again named after Volta who lived in Brunate at some point. The walk is described as only taking 30mins but it was a tough, uphill walk often over cobbles.
For once the spiral staircase wasn't too narrow, there was room for two people to pass and there were few other visitors.
The views over Como and up the lake were fantastic.
As you can tell from Ian's expression, he wasn't overly keen on standing so close to the edge.
There were a couple of bar/hotels nearby so we decided to treat ourselves to a quick drink before making our way downhill again. Ian chose the local speciality Aperol Spritz which looks like lucozade but is apparently similar to Campari although more of a burnt orange flavour.
I stuck to my simple tastes and had a delicious Prosecco.
Brunate's Church of St Andrew The Apostle
Back at the funicular station we didn't have long to wait for the next carriage. The basic principle of funicular operation is that two
cars are permanently attached to each other by a cable, which runs through a
pulley at the top of the incline. Counterbalancing of the two cars, with one
ascending and one descending the slope minimizes the new energy input needed to
lift the ascending car - very clever.
By now it was late afternoon and we felt we'd seen enough of the lakeside towns from the hydrofoil this morning so thought it might be fun to go home by bus. It turned out to be a very cheap option, approx €4 each including our OAP discounts and whilst we were waiting for the timed bus, we had the most delicious ice cream. Of course only the British enjoy queuing, here it was just a free for all but we were lucky enough to get sets near the front of the bus so had a good view. A couple of snaps from the window (hence the strange colour cast).
Where we've just been (Faro Voltiano)
Como Town
The bus took about an hour to get us back to Tremezzo, along the same road we'd driven from the airport but it was nice for me to be able to look at the scenery rather than the road. Knowing the weather was likely to break tomorrow, we decided to walk into Tremezzo for dinner in a restaurant near to where we'd had a drink on day 1.