Bellagio🍷

If your goal is to see how low you can get your blood pressure and heart rate down to then I highly recommend Bellagio! Also if you want a really beautiful place to sit by a gorgeous lake surrounded by mountains then I also recommend Bellagio. I had never been to the Lake Como area in northern Italy commonly just referred to as the Lakes, and when looking at where to go post hike to chill for a bit it seemed to fit the bill perfectly. There are a number of sweet lake towns on Lake Como but the general consensus seems to be if you are going to pick one to visit then Bellagio is the best choice. Other than Como it is the largest, but still really small so super easy to cover the whole town in a couple of hours. There is not much to see so your agenda will read shop, eat, walk up and down the cobbled streets, stop for gelato, sit by the water with perhaps a glass of wine and watch the boats and ferries arrive continuously throughout the day and repeat. Two days is just the right amount of time for me.

One of my favorite parts of planning a trip to Europe is figuring out the transportation from one place to another. It’s like a puzzle but with many options. A site that has been very helpful to me the last couple of trips I have taken to Europe where I was booking a number of different trains is called Trainline. It’s quite easy to use and offers many options at good prices. On this trip I was looking for a train from Geneva Switzerland with a final destination of Como Italy. I found a great option right from the Geneva airport to Zurich with a change in trains direct to Como. Perfect! Then leaving for Milan after Bellagio booked the train from Varenna right to Milan. There are no trains to Bellagio so Como was the closest we could get. Then a ferry from Como to Bellagio after a manic run from the train station to the ferry to catch the 6:38 boat. If we missed it we would have had to sit on the dock and get the 7:10 ferry. Run Julie run! After the hike in the Alps it felt like a piece of cake. Here is the train station in Zurich taken out by the tracks. The station itself was 4 stories high - huge! I love the trains in Europe. Typically so clean and nice and they usually are very dependable. Just google Trainline or try this link https://www.thetrainline.com/en-us/trains/europe. They have a great APP and then you can book trains on the fly and keep all your tickets right on your phone.

The ferry stopped at a number of little towns and people got off and on quickly. This isn’t an excursion ferry. It is a major transportation system for people to get around the lake so it’s all business. Get on or get off as quick as possible. It was dark when we got to Bellagio but you can tell immediately even in the dark and with a bit of rain that it was picture perfect and so charming. We found our hotel which was just about a half block from the ferry dock - and it really exceeded our expectations. Bellagio is expensive but I found this hotel through my best travel guru Rick Steves and compared to other hotels it is a bargain. Perfect location, reasonably priced, super clean, comfortable beds, modern amenities and a fantastic breakfast that is included. It’s the Hotel Bellagio and only has 27 rooms so book as soon as possible. We had a room on the top floor facing the water so our view was spectacular.

There is a beautiful street that runs parallel to the water with restaurants and shops and places to get a drink and sit by the water. Then there is another street parallel to that one at the top of the town with the same kinds of things on it. And then lots of cobbled streets that connect the two that you use to climb a fairly steep hill. So you walk up one street and down the next and so forth. You will get some good exercise as long as you pay attention and don’t fall down! Lots of cute shops with leather goods, jewelry, shoes, clothing, wooden carved items, food specialty stores, wine shops etc.

There is a town square at the top of town called Piazza Della Chiesa that has an 11th century church on it dedicated to St James that is worth a look. There is a really beautiful golden alterpiece inside with a domed mosaic.

We took a walk along the lakefront toward San Giovanni to visit the grounds of the Villa Melzi Gardens one afternoon. The villa itself isn’t open to see but the grounds are spectacular.

The grounds of Villa Melzi.

This is the gazebo on the grounds and we asked a nice woman to take a picture of Julie and I. Then she said something really funny about who cares if other people want us to move so they can take a picture and then swore a bit. We burst out laughing and now I love that picture!

The town is full of couples getting married. Such a picturesque location. We happened upon this beautiful couple in this intimate perfect setting and then stood there and watched the whole thing. The photographer even took our picture and then waved so I guess we are considered witnesses now.

All along the lake are beautiful flowers and benches so you can just while away the hours watching the boats arrive and seeing the clouds drift over the mountains.

We took a walk to a little town about a mile or two from Bellagio called San Giovanni. We decided it must be where all the locals live that work in Bellagio because there wasn’t a soul around but it was darling. Very quaint narrow cobbled streets and a really pretty church right on the water. There was at most one tiny restaurant with a few men sitting having coffee. They definitely looked like locals.

My plan for Bellagio included eating as much pasta, pizza and gelato as possible. Check! The food was great. Is food in Italy ever bad? No! The night we arrived I made my first ugly American faux pas. (At least the first I was aware of😂) We were starving since we had been traveling all day with no lunch so opted for the Suisse restaurant right by our hotel. They had this large cheese wheel that they appeared to be serving pasta from and it looked amazing. So I asked our waiter as I pointed to the item on the menu if that was the cheese bowl. He said Madam you are in Italy where it is not called a cheese bowl but a Parmesan wheel. Parmesan was invented in Italy so please refer to it appropriately. But he said it with a smile so I think he wasn’t offended🤞🏻I ordered it of course and it appears they put hot fettuccine in the Parmesan wheel and mix it very quickly and it turns into delicious very rich Fettuccine Alfredo. I could only eat half it was so rich and wish I had those leftovers right now!

I definitely ate my share of amazing pizza, salad, gelato and panini sandwiches for lunch. Rick Steves says the best gelato in Bellagio is up on the street at the top of town called Gelatera del Borgo so that’s where I went….twice! The pizza one night was from La Grotta. Most of the restaurants close at 2:30 after lunch and don’t open until 7PM for dinner. We had gotten a recommendation for La Grotta and got there at 6:50 and there was already a decent line to get in when they opened. We got in when they opened because it’s fairly good size inside but plan accordingly. The second pizza place was called Nando and it was good too.

One activity many do is take the ferry around the lake. You can pick a destination like Varenna and take the ferry there, spend a few hours and take it back. Or you can buy a day pass and take it all around the lake getting off and on as much as you want, and even tour a few villas that are open for a fee. We had already been on a number of ferries so opted to spend our time relaxing in Bellagio but on a beautiful day it would be a good option. Watching the ferries come in and out never got old.

Maybe sit and watch the ferries with a glass of wine!

My last view of Bellagio as we were taking the ferry to head to our next and last destination….Milan! Check back again for that post. A hint - I liked Milan way more than I thought I would!