Bellagio and Lago di Como

Last weekend we drove to Lago di Como and stayed in Bellagio. On Sunday we attended a concours d'elegance near the town of Como. A concours is a gathering of classic automobiles and motorcycles where the vehicles are judged on their appearance. Mechanical soundness is not a big factor. I will write about the concours in a separate post.

Bellagio is located at the end of a peninsula that sticks up into Lake Como, about 35 km from the town of Como. It is a lovely little town with quite a few cute shops, hotels and restaurants. It's raison d'etre seems to be tourism and it does that well. Here is a view of the town from just south of it. We stayed at a hotel near the bell tower that sticks up in the middle.

Lago di Como reminded me of Lake Washington in Seattle. It is long and narrow. This view looks south. On Saturday the town was crowded with day trippers. There are passenger ferries that link it with Como and other towns along the lake. There are also little car ferries.

The lake is surrounded by mountains, some of them up to 6,000 ft. tall. The day was hot and muggy and hazy.

Many of the buildings look like this.

Here is one of the small car ferries. They reminded me of the ferry to Guemes Island in the San Juans.

Here is the ferry dock.

Loading and unloading a ferry seems universal. They seemed to follow all the same steps as the ferry we regularly take from Mukilteo to Whidbey Island.

And the passengers walking on to head across the lake.

There is a lovely lakeside promenade. We bought some sodas and chips and sat on some steps by the lake for a while. The planters were full of new plantings. As the summer goes on they will fill in and be quite lush and colorful.

There were a lot of motorcyclists on the roads and in the towns. These people had their dog carrier strapped to the back!

Here is a boat storage area at the small marina facility. The top of it is one large deck that looked perfect for parties and dancing.

Given we were in the playground of the rich and famous we saw a number of really beautiful cars on the roads, like this Lamborghini.

The "streets" in Bellagio are called salita which means climb. You can see why in this photo.

This building had a lot of lovely detail--balconies, shutters, a fresco behind glass, and a big grapevine.

Not far from our hotel we saw this OLD motorcycle with sidecar--maybe someone's touring vehicle.

The town is obviously older than most of it looks. This church looks to be early Romanesque. The Our hotel was next door and the bells rang (LOUDLY) from 7 am until 10 pm. We set an alarm for 7 am on Sunday but really did not need it. There is no sleeping in at our hotel!

Inside the hotel was evidence of quite a bit of wealth. This picture shows the ornate alter piece. There were also lovely mosaics on the ceiling.

This is a nice picture of the Sacred Heart.

I like this photo because it shows the old painting on the wall behind the modern baptismal font.

The next morning we were out looking for a newspaper and came across another old motorcycle with sidecar.  It was in exactly the same spot as the one we saw the day before!

After breakfast at our hotel we headed off for Como and the concours d'elegance. The road along the lake reminded me of Chuckanut Drive or the shores of Lake Tahoe. The road climbed and fell as we passed through a number of small towns. There was a lot of traffic on the road at 9 in the morning. Most of it was motorcycles and cyclists. The latter came by in huge packs.

I will do another post, probably tomorrow, on the concours and all the lovely classic cars.