Taking it easy at Lake Como

This will be a brief post as Lago di Como was our place to just lay low and rest for a few days. We picked a great place to do this, a little village overlooking Como far removed from the throngs of tourists 750 metres below. The ride up the cable car or funiculare offered a preview of the spectacular view that we would admire over the next few days. Our hotel had a lot to offer: clean rooms, friendly staff, one of only three restaurants in Brunate, and a million dollar view all on a shoestring budget! Now if only the church right outside our window came with a snooze button for the 7 am bells!
We did manage to descend from our oasis of tranquility (we got itchy feet) to do some exploring. Adam was in gadget heaven when we stopped in to check out exhibits at the Volta museum. Volta was born in Como and invented the battery. Many of the exhibits reminded me of high school science experiments (lots of static electricity stuff). I bet he’s the guy that discovered you can stick a balloon to the wall after rubbing it on your head, funny they didn’t include that in the exhibit!
A quick trip up the lake on a hydrofoil boat brought us to Bellagio, the pretty little village with a big reputation. There were several other beautiful villages along the lake, each of which seem to announce their presence with a palate of pastel colours so as not to get lost in the enormous grey alps that rise up behind them. I almost wish we had jumped off at one of these other villages to explore as they looked just as beautiful and perhaps a little less touristy (if you can get less touristy on Lake Como). The scenery was so great that we decided to take the “slow” ferry back so we could snap some pictures.
That was about all for excitement in Como! Oh- here is something for a frame of reference- we met a man on the funiculare that moved to Brunate with his family and he rents an entire house for 400 Euro/month, that’s about $600 Can or Aus dollars.