The Italian Lakes - Como

The road out of Chiavenna was surprisingly good since it was a pure cycle path. This surprised as we thought that our cycling in Italy would be on normal roads. We had been spoilt so far in Germany, France and Switzerland with excellent cycle paths with good signposting.

First and only river crossing

The long straight road to Lake Como

20 minutes out of Chiavenna and we had our first experience of taking the bikes through water. It was difficult to see how deep it was but luckily the water didn't come up to the bags. The cycle path continued for about another hour but then suddenly stopped when it joined a main road. That was it. The rest of the time in Italy was spent on normal roads as we had suspected. The only advantage of this is that you can actually go faster as there are not so many places to stop and when it is a bit busy you just want to keep going to get it over with as soon as possible. We stopped at a small bar at the northern end of Lake Como and asked whether it was better to cycle down the east or west side of the lake. We were told that the west side can be very busy and therefore we headed for the east side and stopped in the town of Colico for the night at a B&B. This B&B turned out to have the best breakfast of the whole trip. The owner made almost all the food herself and it was a shame we were only staying for one night.



Varenna, Lake Como



Bellagio, Lake Como

iTranslate enables new friendships

After cycling down to Varenna we decided to take the ferry over to Mennagio on the west side of Lake Como and spend the night there. Mennagio was very busy and the only places left to stay were not so nice and expensive. So we cycled south to the next small town and stayed there. The next morning we caught another ferry over to Bellagio. After seeing all the tourist sights in Bellagio we cycled onwards where we eventually arrived at the town of Como at the south western corner of the lake. The weather was not supposed to be very good for the next 3 days so we decided to stay in Como for 3 nights. It wasn't very easy to find anywhere that wasn't fully booked but we eventually found a B&B. The room was self contained with a little kitchen and was part of the owners house. She didn't speak any english and so after trying to communicate we decided to try the iTranslate App on Phil's iPhone. This worked really well and the owner was so pleased that we managed to "talk" together. We used the App alot for the next 3 days and Phil installed it on her iPod and showed her how to use Google Translate on her PC so that she could use it for her next non Italian speaking guests.

In search of some better weather

The Galleria Vittori Emanuele, Milan

The impressive Milan Cathedral

The weather turned out to be as it was forecast but we still made the trip up the funicular to the top of the mountain overlooking the town of Como. The fog came down thick at the top so we didn't get to see the view of the lake. The next day we took a return train trip into Milan where the sun had dedided to come out so we spent a hot day looking around the sights. The last time we were in Milan we weren't allowed into the Cathedral because we had shorts on. This time we also had shorts on but now it didn't seem to be matter so at least we got to see the wonderful interior.

Leaving Como

No, only one, please!

Our last day in Como was spent picking up supplies for our ride west over to Lake Lugano. The rain had now finished and so justified our little break from cycling. It was good to get back on the bikes again and feel that sense of freedom when you start out in the morning not knowing quite where you will end up in the evening.