La Dolce Vita Part 3 – Up the Mountain

Seven of us rented a villa in Lezzano on Lake Como, Italy for a week. We spent two days seeing the lake from the water and then we were off to explore the other side of the lake. Originally we were going to stay in Tremezzo which is almost directly across from Lezzano but while I was exploring the area online I found this awesome looking villa. I thought, why are we cramming ourselves into multiple hotel rooms when we could just rent a villa? The rest is history.

There were a couple of specific reasons why we wanted to see the other side of the lake. We wanted to see the hotel we were going to stay at in Tremezzo and have dinner there since the restaurant had excellent reviews. The other reason was to go to Pigra.

Argegno
Argegno

We contracted with Chicho, a water taxi driver, to take us across the lake to Argegno. After some negotiating he agreed to pick us up that night in Tremezzo. Since there were so many of us, it took a while for us to get going in the morning. It was usually eleven or noon by the time we made it out of the villa. We made it to Argegno in time for lunch. Everything on the lake closes between noon and two o’clock so our timing was perfect. We picked a restaurant right on the water and had a leisurely lunch. Every meal, of course, included wine or beer so that made it all the more relaxing.

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Pietro Vasenna

Across from the restaurant was a bust of Pietro Vasenna (1897-1967). Vassena was an inventor who designed the bathyscaphe C3, a small submarine. In 1948 he boarded his submarine and dove into the waters in front of Argegno. It touched the bottom of the lake (1,352 ft) and established the world record for depth. The bust and plaque were to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his dive.

 

Our ride up
Our ride up

Around two o’clock we wandered over to the funicular that would take us up to Pigra. Pigra was a small village, population approximately 294, just above Argegno. The funicular was really a gondola attached to a cable. It was about a five minute ride and covered more than 1770 ft making it the steepest trip in Italy. From the top you could see all of Lake Como. The view was spectacular.

I was scared of heights and Leo knew that so he kept asking me to stand by the edge and mimic Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’. Very funny. I did manage to back into the railing so he could get a few shots of me at the top of the world.

View down the mountain

Back down on the lake we sat and waited for the bus to Tremezzo.Of course we didn’t have tickets so we had to ask the bus driver to stop along the way so we could buy some. Life is much slower on Lake Como. I don’t think any of us had been so relaxed.

As we drove up the lake we all noticed a change. It seemed more congested, it seemed louder, it seemed more populated. Getting off in Tremezzo was like entering a tourist town. People were milling about, there were shops and restaurants all along the water with lots of car traffic in front of them. There was a fairly large esplanade with people selling things. We went into a park where a band was setting up. We all were so thankful we had decided not to stay there. It was nothing like our quaint little village where everybody was friendly and helpful.

We were caught in a torrential rain on our way to dinner at La Darsena. The rain was very cold. I wasn’t expecting that. I supposed it made sense, though, being in the mountains.

The dinner was excellent. I had lamb chops with a peanut crust. It was definitely different, but good. A couple of us had local fish cooked in paper. We had the most delicious tiramisu ever.

As promised, Chicho was there to pick us up in his water taxi and take us home. It was lovely to have a nice relaxing place to go home to. The lake was beautiful at night.

 

Good bye Tremezzo
Good bye Tremezzo

 

The next night, our last night on Lake Como, a local chef came and cooked us dinner. All about the food, next week.