Atlantica - 01.10.2006, Side 46

LAKE COMOa
44 AT L A N T I CA
for Bellagio, arguably the most famous village on
the lake, and self-referred to as La Perla del Lago di
Como, or “The Pearl of Lake Como.” Molteni tells
you there are three ways to get there:
A) Take the narrow windy road locals prefer
and which, Molteni warns, Americans hate.
B) Hike from a trailhead that picks up outside
Bellagio. You leave your car behind, and either
come back for it tonight, or boat around for the
rest of the weekend.
C) Drive the popular western route that will
wind you past some of the lake’s big villas, includ-
ing you-know-who’s.
A) You can’t resist a challenge.
By 6pm, to the beats of your new Italian pop
station of choice, you’ve set out along Route
583, following the water’s edge from Como to
Bellagio. The sky has clouded over and the wind
picks up as you climb the road between narrow
villages along the way: Blevio, Pognana Lario,
Nesso. The names of the villages sound like the
pasta dishes you can’t wait to dig into.
Driving 583 is like an Xbox game, dodging
small, fierce cars that whisk with psychotic con-
fidence through the villages, and making way for
lurching buses. Terraced gardens notch the steep
hillside to your left, sloping down to the lake. To
the right is the sharp rise of the mountain, where
rocks on the side of the road threaten to dent pas-
senger car doors.
You pull over to absorb the panoramic view of
the Alps that your higher elevation has afforded
you. Three men stand on a strip of terraced gar-
den at a villa beneath the road, considering the
netting over tomato plants. Behind them, passen-
ger and car ferries pass, leaving crisscrossing paths
of white wake.
Bellagio is one of three villages that comprise
the lake’s Bermuda Triangle of tourism. Bellagio,
Menaggio, and Varenna all sit close to one anoth-
er on different shores, necessitating that visitors
ferry between them. On weekdays in high sum-
mer season, you can catch a car or passenger boat
in the triangle regularly during peak hours.
You arrive in Bellagio just before twilight, in
time to watch the village become a soft lavender
wash of cafés under wisteria canopies and waiters
taking photos of families. It’s beautifully situated
– no doubt about that – but there is a manufac-
tured feeling about the village that you didn’t
notice in Como. A car ferry is leaving for Varenna,
where you’ve booked a hotel, in 30 minutes. The
next boat comes in two hours. You:
A) Grab another gelato (all chocolate this time
because it was a lot better than the tiramisu)
and jump on the first ferry out of this overrated
tourist trap.
B) Stroll around and give Bellagio a chance.
C) Fall in love with the continental vibe, cancel
your reservations in Varenna, and hit the pave-
ment to look for a hotel room here for less than
EUR 200 a night.
B) You are a traveler of the philosophy that even
the most Disney-esque Italian villages deserve
two hours of your time, and so you decide to have
a look around.
The much-celebrated Grand Hotel Villa
Serbelloni beckons at the end of the village prom-
enade with its turquoise lakeside pool, private
lake float, and the clinking of plates and glasses
floating out from its terrace restaurant. You wan-
der in, but the opulence of the five-star lobby is
too baroque for your taste, so you leave to explore
Bellagio’s winding back streets. A couple of side-
street businesses look promising, like La Divina
Commedia Spiritual Cafe with a cheap wine and
cheese tasting menu, and the small, busy Trattoria
San Giacomo, with its extensive wine menu.
Unfortunately, Trattoria San Giacomo has a
long wait, and you have a boat to catch. You sit
down for a quick, unremarkable plate of gnoc-
chi and some decent cheap red wine for dinner
at a restaurant near the depot. (A blessing and
a curse, this meal sets the culinary tone of your
trip: decent but boring food, and cheap but good
wine.)
You find your way to the Albergo Del Sole
after the car ferry drops you and your rental off
in Varenna’s sleeping streets at 11pm. The hotel
is exactly what you were looking for – small,
affordable, and in a piazza soundtracked by leaves
rustling in a late night wind. Though it’s dark
and you can’t make out the town’s details, you
042 Ítalía Atl506.indd 44 25.8.2006 10:03:12