Northern Italy 2022, (September 3-14)


Our final full day in Italy would start with yet another beautiful sunrise. The weather gods were really generous to us on this trip! We did pack rain gear, but if we hadn't it surely would have poured! I can't remember if I mentioned that every day at 8am and 8pm the church bells played Ave Maria di Lourdes, we loved that! If I can post a video here I will, just need to figure it out.


We love being on the water and what better way to end the trip with a Grand Finale!. During our planning we researched various boat options including the iconic classic wood boats and the hard to find sailboats. We were interested in a 4 hour experience and these would roughly cost around $1000, included a bottle of Prosecco and tour guide of course. At Albergo Aurora we found small powerboats with canopy for $75 per hour (Fuel included), YES! besides we had wine and prefer to follow our own itinerary. We are experienced sail boaters, but the rental guy told us "no experience needed". That sort of amazes me?


We arrived at Albergo Aurora an hour early and had a relaxing breakfast there. They offer a generous buffet inside, but we opted to sit on their little patio and order off the menu. We also grabbed some fresh croissants here for snacking later on the boat.


At the dock the paperwork was minimal, and the instructional part took only 5 minutes. We set the dock lines free and off we went to explore Lago di Como! It was 9:45am and we left the dock still in the shadows of the mountain, halfway across the lake we entered glorious warm sunshine. The boat had a Mercury 40hp and it was actually faster than I expected...and smooth.










We didn't do a lot of research on what to see, but we'd know it when we saw it! Perhaps the tour operators knowledge is worth a few extra $$$? The lake was pretty flat this day, the only chop was when larger boats or ferries passed by. We first headed to the western shoreline and circumnavigated Isola Comacina, pretty cool. Navigating the waters is really straight forward and easy, especially since we would remain a safe distance from land. From there we would hug the shoreline motoring north slowing to check out Lenno, Tremezzo, Menaggio, Griante, Cadenabbia etc. The sights are truly amazing from the water with small colorful towns, beautiful villas and the incredible jaw dropping mountain vistas! Some villas are more famous than others and you movie buffs may recognize a couple? We have a photo of Sir Richard waving at us while kite boarding 20 feet from our charter catamaran at Necker Island BVI's, so I figured we'd slide over to his place to see if he remembered us, hmmm not home!





















We went pretty far north to the picturesque town of Santa Maria Rezzonico. Turned the motor off and just bobbed in the still waters. Time for wine, croissant and a swim! Wondering if there's local folklore of a "Nessie" in this 1300 foot deep body of water? answer is yes and they even have discovered a fossil, they call it "Larry". Wisely we didn't google that before diving in!















After an enjoyable pit stop we motored across the lake at top speed, very few boats on this end of the lake. It felt less developed on the east coast until we motored into Varenna waters. What a beautiful town! Varenna was on our homebase list, but less available airbnb options when we searched. They have train service which is attractive. We would love to return to walk this postcard perfect town.















Checked our watch and it was time to start back across the lake. First town we came to was familiar Bellagio, which is even more beautiful from the water. We went passed our villa to check out Orrido di Nesso from the water. We really got a good feel for how steep Nesso is from this vantage point, beautiful small town. There were a handful of boats waiting to get close to the bridge and waterfall for photo ops and since we actually walked it we sat back and just admired from a distance.













We had a few minutes remaining to swing by Villa Lombardi. Looking at the villa from the water was pretty cool, couldn't have picked a better place. I'll circle a pic to show the enormous amount of space this villa offers. Our villa greeter said some boat rental companies will pick you up at this villa, interesting idea!









With only 15 minutes remaining we hustled back to Lezzeno to turn the boat in. This half day was a serious highlight of our trip. If this is something that interests you and you feel like you can handle a small boat I would HIGHLY recommend renting from Albergo Aurora. A nice thing about renting here is that we could enjoy another outstanding lunch at the outdoor restaurant, we had lots of lasagna, ravioli and clams, living La Dolce Vita!







When we pulled into our parking space we decided to walk directly to Tres Rose to order pizza to have on hand for later at the villa....CLOSED TUESDAYS!!! Disappointed, but no biggie, we had the porcini risotto we bought in Bellagio, cheese and a little soppressata to sustain us! We spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening simply enjoying the villa, swimming, jumping and of course finishing the remaining Piemonte wine!







Long story short, packing was a drag. waking up o'dark early was a drag, I did enjoy coffee in the dark while taking recyclables to the parking lot....lots of empty wine bottles hahaha! I was disappointed that we would miss hearing Ave Maria di Lourdes one last time, but at 6am we were on the road to Malpensa. Only hiccup along the way was that our credit cards wouldn't work at the unmanned pumps, cash is king and we filled up! Airport and flights were uneventful and 9 hours later we were home in Virginia.

Thank you for reading this multi day report! Hope it wasn't too long and I hope it gets you excited to travel again now that the world is open. Now that they're all written what will I do with my free time?? PLAN ANOTHER TRIP! shouts the American tourist. Ciao!