It has rained on us during this Italy trip. Well, sort of. We were in our B&B in Rome, so rain never actually touched us. Thunder crashed. Lightning lit up the night sky. Rain came down in torrents, flooding the streets. Amazing. Last night was a repeat performance here at Lake Como. However, there is a difference between these two weather events. Where in Rome the sun was shining the next morning and for days after, here we woke to sullen grey skies and a forecast of rain all day. So what do you do when on vacation, one based on outside activities, and the sky fills with rain? We decided to see if we could squeeze some activities in between rain storms. Today, that was the equivalent of playing tag with cars on the freeway.
We got up, showered and were downstairs by 8:15 am for breakfast. The hostel provides breakfast, 8:00 am to 9:30 am. It is a nice spread, Musueli, cold cereal, breads, toast, cookies, juices, peanut butter, jams and butter. We ate, though neither were very hungry after tanking up at all you can eat dinner last night. Still, we ate, then headed out the door for the ferry landing. Our plan? Take the ferry over to Bellagio, a small, exclusive town at the end of the peninsula where the lake splits, explore for a couple hours, then head back before the rain comes our way.
We paid our round trip fares (18.40 euro) and boarded the ferry, same one that brought us across the lake yesterday afternoon when we arrived. First stop, Veranna, then onto Bellagio. We met some interesting people on the boat ride over, a group of 10 from England. When we docked we left the ship and began exploring the town. It is not very big. Truthfully, it just appeared to be one boutique after another. Nothing on sale. After climbing the hill and finding more of same type of shop, we headed out to the end of the point to see this piece of topography. As we did, we noticed that the sky and lake had merged into one grey mass punctuated with flashes of lightning. We judged we had enough time to walk 10 minutes out and 10 back and still make the ferry (25 minutes from sailing). We did, but as we approached the ferry landing the first drops started to pelt us. We got under the roof of the dock side gazebo as the sky opened up. With umbrellas deployed, we scurried across the gangplank onto the pitching boat and ducked into the aft cabin. As the boat crossed the lake the rain came down hard; big drops falling thick and fast. It streamed down the windows as if someone was hosing off the outside of the ship with a fire hose. Halfway across the lake a bolt of lightening struck the lake about 500 yards of the port stern. I happened to be looking in the right direction at the right time and saw the bolt. Amazing.
When we docked on our side of the lake 15 minutes later the rain was still at it. The pavement was an inch deep in water, at the shallow places and 2-3 inches deep everywhere else as it hurried downhill toward the lake. We slogged our way up the street, glad to be wearing our Teva sandals instead of shoes. Wet feet when it 73º out is not a problem.
We holed up in the hostel until the storm blew through another 30 minutes later. With the rain gone, we ventured out and walked the water front, looking for the grocery store at the far end of town. We found the camp ground in our explorations, the bus depot and finally the grocery store. We bought some food for dinner, checked on the bus schedule and operations and walked back to the hostel as the skies opened up again. We made meat and cheese sandwiches on rolls for dinner, talked with a few people and then headed up to our room to watch the storm.
Our room has a 180º view of the lake, perched 4 floors above the lake level. It is beautiful.
We managed to get a little activity in today between the storms. The forecast tomorrow is the same. Rain and thunderstorms all day, until about 7 in the evening. We hope to do what we did today, dodge the storms and get some activities in without getting too wet. The good news? Wednesday is forecast to be clear skies, sunny and warm.
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