We got up, threw some more coins in the dryer, and had a simple but good breakfast at the Youthhostel. The first half of this day exceeded all of our expectations. We left Feldkirsh and headed due west into Switzerland, then followed A13 south through the heart of the Alps to Italy. The weather on the north side of the Alps was beautiful, and we were overwhelmed with the views as we followed the Rhine to its source. The Swiss cantons we passed lived up to every Heidi stereotype you have. We climbed around and through the mountains (lots of tunnels that are engineering marvels) until the towns turned from German to Italian in name, the noticeable change being at San Bernadino… no, not California, dude. Unfortunately, that’s also where the weather changed. As we crossed the crest of the Alps, the warmer, humid air from the Mediterranean hit the peaks and DUMPED.
The rest of our trip to Lake Como was in mist and rain, and not aided by a long back-up at the Swiss-Italian border. Judy had been trying to get a picture of a border crossing since the trip began, and we learned here that taking pictures of the border crossing is a “no no.” We were told so when we were pulled out of line. Judy said, “you’re kidding!” The border guard assured her that no, he was not kidding. We had to pull the camera out and erase the offending photos in the presence of the Italian border guards.
The southern point of Lake Como is just across the Swiss-Italian border. Lake Como is spectacular. It is shaped like a “Y” and the Alps drop precipitously directly into it. It is surrounded by small villages, each dug into the sheer mountainside. It is beautiful and scenic (at least I assume so… we were in thick clouds/fog).
In principle our trip up the western coastline should have been a piece of cake. Mapquest did not serve us well in this case, and we made a lot of false starts trying to find A334 to take us up the coast. Mapquest failed us further by giving us directions that had no bearing to reality once we got on the right road. Our residence was in Tremezzo, but Mapquest had us there about 10km before reality, and had us turning on non-existent roads. We finally got to a Hotel Grand Tremezzo to try to figure out where we were. Judy asked some workers in a garage for help. They didn’t speak much English but sent us back about 100m and said we needed to go up a “strict” road that was too narrow for our car. He advised us to park elsewhere and hike up.
We couldn’t find our “road” and got some more help from another guy who didn’t speak English, and he helped with a pseudo-map drawn on a card. We finally found the (completely unmarked) “street”, which was at best 2’ wider than our car at its widest point, and ran at about a 45 degree angle uphill. Judy and I walked up, where after a stiff climb we found Residence Il Torchio, our place to stay. Except that it was a house, and the only guy there was a painter who spoke no English. Through a combination of sign language and pidgin English/Italian, we learned that (1) the owner wasn’t there, (2) the owner wasn’t answering his phone, and (3) the owner—unlike the painter—doesn’t do real work. But he sent us to Hotel Britannia a couple km further up the road, and in reading the fine print Judy discovered that this was where we needed to check in and get our keys. So we walked back down the hill again.
We went up to Hotel Britannia, where we did indeed get the keys but were informed that the rooms weren’t going to be ready for another hour. By this time, it was 5:30 and check-in time was supposedly 2:00 – 7:00. We were tired and hungry. We went back to the car and I decided that we could, in fact, make it up the “strict” road… if Judy walked in front and made sure I didn’t hit the walls. She did, and we made it up with a seriously smoking clutch. We parked in the single parking space provided for the hotel guests, locked up, and walked back down the hill to find food.
And we did find food, and a local wine, and it was good. A couple hours later, we hiked back up the hill to our house, and it was wonderful! We had two spacious rooms with refrigerators, sinks, kitchenware, new bathrooms (with heated towel racks). In fact, they were the only two rooms on the floor, adjacent to each other with a shared balcony overlooking Lake Como. Which would probably be really beautiful if we could see it. It was slightly over-promised… we were supposed to have Internet (there’s a router, but the password we were given doesn’t work), as well as a washer and dryer (there isn’t). But the price was a barain—€45 per room, probably because it’s still a work in progress. It will be incredible when it’s finished.
In any case, a pretty good ending to a surprising day.
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| View from our apartment at Lake Como |
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