Atlantica - 01.10.2006, Page 47

AT L A N T I CA 45
sense Varenna propagates a less flashy image of
the typical Lake Como village than Bellagio. It’s
more your style.
In the morning, 7am church bells wake you
before your alarm goes off. You open the wood
shutters to a pink dawn over the lake, look out
over the red rooftops of the village, and decide
to:
A) Get back into bed and sleep in. This is your
vacation, and Varenna, while stunning, can wait.
B) Decide to roll with the holy wake up call and
go for a walk before the real tourists show up and
spoil everything.
B) Come on. Get up.
The candles and heavy incense inside the
Chiesa di San Giorgio have been lit, but the build-
ing, consecrated in 1313 and restored in 1957, is
empty. You walk through the quiet Piazza San
Giorgio to Villa di Cipressi, a restored villa at the
edge of town that, once private, is now run by the
Varenna municipality as a hotel.
(This reminds of another grim prophecy spun
by the woman at the tourist office, that “the des-
tiny of the villa is the destiny we see in George
Clooney.” In other words, the Italian aristocracy is
losing their hand-me-down villas of yesteryear to
international types who can afford their upkeep.
She also left you with a handy pocket guide to
From left: Breakfast in Varenna; A watering hole in Nesso;
An evening stroll in Varenna; Ships coming and going
in Bellagio; Dusk at Varenna’s waterfront.
Driving 583 is like an Xbox game, dodging small, fierce cars that whisk
with psychotic confidence through the villages.
042 Ítalía Atl506.indd 45 25.8.2006 10:04:07