After spending sometime exploring the town of Como – it was time to jump on a boat and head up the lake. After Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore this is Italy’s third largest lake, Europe’s deepest outside of Norway and with a distinct inverse ‘Y’ shape provides a varied backdrop of mountains, shore-lined villages, beautiful villas and the Alps beyond. The first organised ferry service began in 1826 with a single steamship called the Lario.

Today there are a number of options and the maximise our time we chose the slightly more expensive than standard hydrofoil service on a ship called the Lord Byron. The English poet was known to spend time at the Lake. In fact he was not the only romantic poet to be captured by the fairy-tale qualities of this part of the world – William Wordsworth wrote a poem dedicated to it, while Percy Bysshe Shelley said it had “exceeded anything I ever beheld in beauty”. Mark Twain said it was a “heaven of quiet rest”

It would not take us long to see why.

Leaving Como

Our first stop would be the furthest on our boat ride – the beautiful town of Bellagio. Located in the middle of the lake and at the fulcrum of the three arms of the lakes it quickly developed into a famous and important place.

Bellagio

It is said that composer Franz Liszt was inspired to compose ‘Dante’s Symphony’ while spending time in the Villa Melzi d’Eril. Verdi, Bellini, Puccini and Rossini also spent time here seeking inspiration. Going back even further the Roman poet Virgil and Pliny the Younger.

Military leaders Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Publius Quintiles Varus (on his way to Germany and defeat at the hands of Arminius), Narses, Lothar I, Frederick Barbarossa also passed through over the centuries.

Bellagio was a very beautiful typical Italian town with cobbled stairways dotted with shops, cafes and restaurants. By the water’s edge is a villa – Villa Melzi d’Eril with it’s amazing gardens and sculptures which we walked around. We could see why Franz Liszt felt so inspired. Near the entrance is a wooden boat – a Venetian gondola that was transported here for personal use by Napoleon as well as precious Egyptian statues. (You can see one of them below).

Argegno and the cable car to Pigra

Probably our longest stop was in Argegno where we split our time between the lakeside town and the mountain village of Pigra above. Argegno is built along an inlet into the lake that includes the River Telo. It is a quaint town with multi-coloured buildings and a collection of decent cafes in the Piazza Roma near the ferry terminal. Also in the square is a small bust statue dedicated to Pietro Vassena – a local inventor and entrepreneur who invented submarines, transparent watches and dozens of other contraptions and gadgets.

The cable-car up to Pigra took only 5 minutes but it climbed over 540m in that time. The town itself was quite quiet and had plenty of cat paintings on some of the houses. We spent our time walking around and taking a trail path to the Belvedere (lookout) to get some pictures of the breath-taking views back down to the lake below.

We had an extra long wait to take our return leg back to Argegno as the cable-car was shut for lunch. Our first inclination that it was about to start up again was when we saw the operator jump into his car – some 400 metres away and drive for 1 minute down the station. Omo de panza. Omode sostanza indeed!

Lenno and the Villa del Balbianello

We made our way down the western shore in the late afternoon to a town called Lenno. Very picturesque and with the curving bay quite different to some of the other places we stopped. The main attraction, and one we sampled from, was La Fabbrica del Gelato, the ice cream shop. Next to it was an octagonal stone building, part of a church that once stood here. What remains is this baptistry dedicated to St John the Baptist.

The main prize however was a short walk out onto the peninsula,  Dosso d’Avedo, that juts out from the south of the town.

The villa and it’s gardens were once a monastery belonging to the Franciscan Order founded in the 13th Century. Today a pair of towers are the only remnants of that former past. It was turned into a villa in 1787 by Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini before becoming a hotbed of republican activity from 1796 when ownership passed to his nephew. Under pressure from the authorities it was then sold to a family friend in 1802 – Giuseppe Arconati Visconti. The balustrade in front of the church bears a symbol of a serpent with a man in his mouth. This was the Arconati Visconti emblem.

After 30 years of neglect it was then bought by an American engineer-soldier-politician-businessman Butler Ames in 1919. In 1974 it passed back into Italian ownership via Count Guido Monzino (Leader of the 1st Italian expedition to climb Mount Everest). After making extensive renovations of the interior he passed the property over to the Italian state on his death in 1988.

It’s location and architecture allow two seperate vantages of the lake and mountains beyond and its gardens were intricately designed and kept over a number of terraces.

If you think you might recognise the villa you are probably right. It has appeared in numerous films such as 2006’s James Bond movie Casino Royale and the “I hate sand” scene from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Which Karen and I attempted to create.

On the return trip to Como we spotted a number of impressive buildings dotting the shoreline. Starting with the five star Grand Hotel Termezzo, Nesso and it’s antique stone bridge (Ponte della Civera) we also sailed past the Villa d’este and it’s red painted Queen’s pavilion building. Built and dedicated to Queen Caroline of Brunswick in 1826 who had spent some time in the region.