Lake Como, 9/18/1994 At 1,400 Feet, Is Deepest In Europe

Trip on Lake Highlights
Sunday Afternoon

By Bob Van Leer

(COMO, ITALY, Sept. 18, 1994) - Today we took a tour of Lake Como by boat stopping at a villa now a state museum and at a small village for sightseeing and shopping.

This is a big lake, 30 miles long and three miles wide. Our guide, Anthony, said it is the deepest in Europe, 1400 feet deep. It has three main arms and is in the shape of an inverted "y" with the city of Como at the end of the southwest arm.

  Boat traffic was heavy including hydrofoils, at least two ferries, and numerous smaller boats. There are roads all around the lake but boats and ferries appear to be more practical for a lot of transport.

  The climate here is surprisingly mild yet the latitude is that of the upper Willamette valley. Citrus fruits, palm trees, even bananas grow here. And Como is about 150 miles inland. The only explanation I can get is Como is surrounded by mountains to north, east and west and, to the southeast, is at the end of a plain that starts at the Adriatic Sea, an arm of the Mediterranean Sea.

  We stopped at the Villa Carlotta, built starting in 1690, and now the property of the Italian state. The villa was owned by a German family in World War I and confiscated by the Italian government. The villa is filled with artwork, one of the most famous being a marble sculpture "Eros and Psyche" by Antonio Canova. The villa is surrounded by a beautiful formal garden.

  We stopped next at the village of Bellagio, on a point where the three arms of the lake meet. It is a tiny village designed to service tourists arriving by boat.

  There was a lightning storm last night and the hotel people said it had been raining for three weeks. But today the weather was perfect, shirt-sleeve warm, a perfect day for a lake tour by boat. And from the boat we can see snow-capped peaks in the Swiss Alps.

  The lake has a substantial population along its banks and on benches high above the lake. The style is Mediterranean, light-colored masonry walls and red clay tile roofs  Scott, Sherry and I went downtown by cab this morning. There were more people out than I would have expected on a Sunday morning and, after church let out, the town was busy even though many shops were closed.

  We stopped for coffee at a small square and tossed pastry crumbs out for the few pigeons on the square. Suddenly it became a scene straight out of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". The air was alive with pigeons numbering in the hundreds. Prices in store windows look frightening because it takes 1500 Italian lira  to make a dollar. Even knowing this, it still gives us a start to see a computer in a window with a price tag of over 2 million.

DINNER IN "NEW" ADDITION
  We had dinner this evening in the "informal" dining room in the "new" addition to the hotel. Both of these words have to be taken in a context different from what we are used to. "Informal" means coats and ties are not absolutely mandatory. Waiters, of course, wear tuxedoes and all food service is formal. Food at this hotel is not just cooked, it is prepared like a work of art. I ordered a dish that included rabbit.

  Nothing served resembled what I was expecting. The waiter informed me the centers of the green gelatin served was rabbit and, "If the cook says it is rabbit, it is rabbit".

  The "new" addition to the hotel was built in 1873. Tomorrow we are to be on the road again. Our next stop is Florence.
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