Friday 15th Oct: Como and Lugano

The day dawned bright and sunny, but hazy. It will burn off, we thought. But it didn’t, it got hazier, so no big views although the lakes were beautiful, atmospherically beautiful in the mist. We stopped for lunch at Menaggio on lake Como where we sat out at a café in the old square.

We left lake Como at Menaggio and cut across to Lake Lugano, the northern shore of which we followed until we crossed into Switzerland, and thence to the upmarket town of Lugano, The guidebook said that parking is difficult here: it was right, but we did eventually find a multi-storey at a price in keeping with the prices on the high street. The town is very chic, full of designer shops and exclusive restaurants, a sort of Harrods-on-the-lake. The photo is of the town’s lake frontage, but doesn’t convey the posh image of the town centre.

In a way, more our scene: a bunch of crows, opportunists as always for food. These are hooded crows quite common in Italy but only found in the North-East and Scotland in the UK.

We encountered huge traffic jams leaving Lugano and then all the way back to the Italian border. We also experienced traffic congestion having crossed back into Italy, but it kept moving. We were pleased to get back to the ‘van, late, after a long day out, and glad we hadn’t chosen a campsite on one of the more famous lakes because Lake Orta, where we are, is much less congested, and every bit as beautiful.