Getting ready to head home, in France

Well we woke up in Paradise and aren’t really even awake yet, I thought I would read what I’ve written lately and also comment on Bellagio, Italy. The pervious narrative regarding Bellagio doesn’t really do it that much justice. Our view this morning is of a mountain range, a varied mountain range, that overlooks Lago del Coumo. Varied in the sense that on peak is snow capped and soft in appearance, another beside it is shardy and outcroppy, and the third beside it reminds me of Bald Mountain in Yosemite, Interesting as I don’t think I’ve ever noticed a collection of mountain tops so dissimilar? In looking across the lake at the small town clinging to the shore, I see a old world motif, I’m aware that these aren’t newly constructed, that they have evolved over hundreds and hundreds of years, I guess what strikes me is that they haven’t had all these new logo-istic type new Architecturally significant homes inserted willy nilly. Willy Nilly not being the name of an Architects firm, rather the Malibu-ification, where a perfectly good, maybe in need of modernizing, house is torn down and replaced with some monument to financial investment for the sake of art. There is a rhythm to the shoreline, houses that look related, of the same species even, not the look where random boxes and post modern or Mediterranean statements are yelling at each other. It is unspoiled in Bellagio, in the off-season. Well it was until we got here anyway. Well gotta wake up the sleeping beauties so we can go have our breakfast and wander down by the shoreline to catch a ferry.
Oh how I wish our Family and friends could be here. “Exit stage left even………”


We drive to the center of Bellagio and park our car behind the only other occupied car in town, he is also in the line for the ferry. Cindy goes to the ticket window and purchases the required tickets. The ferry arrives ten minutes later, and we don’t realize how lucky we are, as it could very easily have been us driving up to the parking area as the ferry pulls out and the next ferry would be two hours later, like I said, we are lucky. The ferry ride over the smooth lake takes 10 to 15 minutes, the view is spectacular, seeing the adjacent towns from the water level just reinforces how beautiful the place is. We depart the ferry and drive towards Como, we pull over in the next town and try to see if we can walk to the Villa del Balbianello in Lenno. It’s not open till later in the season, however around the corner we see the towns weekly market and we walk over to investigate. It reminds us a great deal of the small French town markets, every thing from small inexpensive tools, bargain rate clothes, fresh produce, hats, leather goods, music, etc. We don’t linger long and make our way back to the car and leave Lenno. We pass through the rest of the Lago del Coumo region and make our way to the Italian Autostrada and start the southerly trek to Genova. There aren’t any real frantic drivers along our trip to the French Border and three hours pass without incident. Once we arrive in France I have to decompress from my tense style of driving and relax. There is a real difference and I try to acclimate to the revised civilized traffic, it was stressful to calm down and recalibrate. As we head into Provence, we look forward to being back in Antibes.