“Next week I’ll show up in Como just for a few days. I would like to get a walk on the lake, what you suggest me?”, my American friend Carole on the phone.
“Ok, no problem, I’ll surprise you.”
That hot day at the end of June, I went to pick up Carole at 5,30 a.m. in the morning and riding my Vespa I drove from Como to Argegno, where we stopped for a breakfast. At 6,30 a.m. we arrived in Griante, a nice village above Cadenabbia.
“Do you see that little church?”
“Yes… it looks nice…”, replied Carole.
“Well, is San Martino and we are going there.”
It’s quite easy to reach the church, just follow the sign San Martino, the difficult part is the walk, as a matter of fact the path is uphill, a fairly tough climb, but luckily at that time of the morning it’s quite cool.
During the walk the smells of the woods and nature delighted our sense of smell, every now and then some butterflies flew gracefully over the mountain flowers.
“What’s that? Is a goat poop?”, Carole asked me pointing out some brown dots.
“No I guess it’s a deer poop…”
“Deer?…”
“You have no idea how many deers we have around these mountains… Carole take a rest, and get some water you’re all sweaty…”
After half hour of walk we finally arrived at San Martino.
“What a wonderful view! What a marvel, what a beauty… From here you can understand why everyone wants to come to the lake of Como… Thank you so much…”
“Any time, Carole… From here you can enjoy the most beautiful view of Bellagio, look the shape of its peninsula… Behind Bellagio here is the Lecco branch of the lake, and that mountain is the Grigna, more than 8000 feet high”.
We stayed there for an hour sunbathing and contemplating the lake.
“Carole, it’s starting to get hot, how about we go for a swim?”
“Good idea, where?”
“I’ll take you to Victoria Beach in Menaggio, a very elegant place with an excellent restaurant; then tonight we’ll take the ferry from Cadenabbia to Bellagio, we’ll stop there for dinner and then we’ll return to Como with the cool of the night.”
“Splendid! And again thank you so much…”
“Any time, Carole.”
