Out And About with the Crawshaws: The Crawshaws’ Overseas Trip

Tuesday 21 May - Today we took the ferry to Bellagio. In spite of a rainy and stormy forecast, the morning was warm and sunny, perfect weather for cruising Lake Como. Bellagio is just across the lake from Varenna so after a mere ten minutes, we disembarked along with hordes of other eager tourists.

One of the reasons we went to Bellagio was that Glen, a friend of Eve and Max had recommended a couple of good restaurants for lunch. Another more frivolous reason was that George and Amal Clooney have a villa in the vicinity and might be hanging out in Bellagio. In actual fact, their villa, named Oleandra, is near the town of Laglio, just over an hour’s ferry ride from Bellagio. So the Clooneys were in no danger of us crashing their lunch party.

We found the first restaurant very quickly. With the unlikely name of Far Out, it was far up a steep set of steps directly in line with the ferry dock. The sign said it opened at 11.30 so we went off to explore the delights of Bellagio.

We returned at 12 noon, only to find the restaurant still closed. Eventually we ascertained from asking around in our non fluent Italian that Far Out was closed on Tuesdays. Oh dear. Lucky we had the other option that Glen had recommended. After finding Ristorante Barchetta, we were shown to a table and handed menus, bread sticks etc. When the waitress came to take our order, I asked for the wifi password. She informed us that their restaurant did not have access to the password. It belonged to the restaurant upstairs. And of course, according to the sign on the door around the corner, it was also closed on Tuesdays. So ended our quest to try and take advantage of Glen’s culinary critique of Bellagio. Our restaurant by default, apart from no wifi, was more than satisfying. Michael ordered a Calzoni pizza to share with me, which was delicious. Eve and Max spaghetti and tagliatelle respectively. The wine was good, the food delectable but we never did learn the name of this restaurant, lying in the shadow of Barchetta up above.

We browsed the shops on the waterfront, buying a few knick-knacks to take home. Heading back to the ferry terminal, we were told by the young man that the next ferry left for Varenna in 20 minutes. So when the next ferry arrived 5 minutes later, we stood back. After waiting 25 minutes, Max asked again about the Varenna ferry. He was told that it had already left and the next one was leaving from pier 6 in a couple of minutes. We could only see pier 3 in the direction the young man pointed but a ferry was already there, being loaded with people and cars. So we raced off after Max who sped off at a lightning pace (my still suffering calf muscles screaming in agony) only to see the ferry pull out just as we arrived. Back to the terminal office, this time to be told that the next ferry was leaving in another 20 minutes. So a fairly long wait for transport back to our little town, but the sun was shining and we were in no real hurry, so we sat around like everybody else and waited.

That evening, Eve and Max invited us around for a few drinks and an anti pasta meal instead of venturing out to a restaurant. It was very pleasant, their apartment being a vast improvement on ours. The balcony beyond the French doors offered a breathtaking view of the lake. It was a three bedroom apartment with a lounge and dining area. It also sported a washing machine, luxury indeed. After a nightcap of Limoncello, Michael and I wandered back to our compact quarters, enjoying the relative quiet of a Spring night on Lake Como.