After yesterday’s shenanigans I found it really difficult to sleep. I closed my eyes and all I could see were tunnels and bends. Not very nice. I must have fallen asleep at some point because I woke up at 6am thinking about logistics for the next few days. My main responsibility on holiday is ‘planning’ whereas Jane is responsible for where we eat, money, charging batteries, tea and coffee. I have however, been appointed as Chief Door Opener as-well, which is nice.
Anyway….our plans for today were a little more relaxed. We were off to Bellagio just across the lake by ferry. I’d found a really good blog that gave what seemed a good route to explore Bellagio so we planned to follow this.
We were up relatively early again to catch the ferry at 10:10am. Luckily the ferry station is right outside our hotel and so it’s really easy. We woke up to a beautiful sunny day and it was lovely by the lake so early where it was still very quiet. The views from the front of the ferry were fantastic all around and I couldn’t sit still- preferring to stay standing and enjoyed the views and taking way too many photos.
The ferry stops at Tremezzo and Villa Carlotta before arriving in Bellagio after 30 mins. The sun was already in and out of the clouds but we were so lucky, as later everything clouded over. It was spectacular.
When we arrived in Bellagio it was surprisingly quiet. Everything I’d read said that this place would be heaving with tourists. But apparently they make a slow start to the day.
We started off by wandering along to La Punta Spartivento which is right at the end of the Penninsula that Bellagio is on. The views from here were fab and I took the opportunity to do a little sketch. Very enjoyable.
Next we went to see some real art as we visited the Gallery of Jerry Fresia who is an American artist based in Bellagio. I’d met Jerry as a student on one of his workshops at Broadway Arts Festival several years ago. It was lovely to see his wife again who was utterly charming and friendly. I also enjoyed seeing Jerry’s paintings in the flesh. They’re so much larger in life than on Instagram. Sadly , I couldn’t see Jerry as he is teaching a workshop here in Bellagio this week.
Next we started following the route I’d found on the blog proper. We were now in the upper part of the village walking along Via Garibaldi. We visited the little market in the piazza near the church of San Giacomo. The random bell ringing really did sound lovely.
Sadly the Xmas decoration shop had closed but we did find ‘Bottega Di Legno della Familigia Tacchi’ which sells all sorts of wooden toys and decorations as well as practical things like chopping boards. It was doing an incredible trade and we found a lovely new Xmas decoration!
The upper part of the village is joined to the lower part (waterside) by a series of pebbled Salina’s. These are narrow and steep alleys lined with shops and cafes etc and by now packed with tourists. Our ‘guide’ told us to ignore these and to come down the much quieter Salina Genazzini, which we did.
We decided that we needed a loo break and a little sustenance and so stopped at the Hotel Splendide’s waterfront bar. It was indeed very splendid and after a brief respite we were ready to go again. Now we walked away from the harbour and along a lovely flower filled promenade. We were heading to the gardens of Villa Melzi. This impressive villa was built between 1802 and 1805 and whilst still privately owned, is now a national monument looked after by the Italian National Trust. The gardens were beautiful, right on the lakeside and with century old trees, a Japanese water garden as well as classical statues and a grotto.
The gardens are so beautiful that there were four couples having their wedding photos taken at various lovely spots.
By now we’d done quite a bit of walking and I was beginning to fade. We made our way back to the harbour and bought ourselves, yes you guessed it, a gelato. Yum , Amaretto was a v good choice today. We sat down by the water taxi station (yours for a meagre £3- 400 per hour…) and I did another little sketch. Then we decided we’d better join the queue for our ferry back to Lenno. Oh..big mistake , when we got to ‘platform’ 2 the queues were huge and they were prioritising entry for three very large groups. This was 20 mins before the 3:50 was due to leave. Inevitably, when the small ferry arrived we were about 8 people away from being allowed to board as the boat was full of ‘groups’ and people who had now just pushed in from the back of the queue pretending they were part of the ‘group’. Hm, there was nothing else for it but to stand and wait for the next ferry at 4:45! Someone behind us commented that you come here thinking you’ll be able to hop about all over the lake on ferries but it just doesn’t work like that, it’s all actually rather complicated …..and busy.
Ah well, the time passed quickly and the sun came out again making the water sparkle for our journey home. We stumbled out of the boat and straight into our lovely hotel and decided to eat in the restaurant here again. It is really very good and very easy. A very relaxing and enjoyable day.
Where shall we go to next? 
Grand Hotel Tremezzo reminds me a lot of another famous Grand Hotel ! Can you guess which ?
I know the one Dave.This one is extremely swanky and famous for it’s ’floating’ swimming pool!