6/17 -- Transfer to Tirano

We headed toward the east side of Lake Como and made a couple stops there before continuing to Tirano, about due east of the top of Lake Como and only a mile from the Switzerland border.

Above/below: two of the more modern
Milan buildings. The lower one was voted
most beautiful.

 

Remnants of the Piedmont quarry that supplied stone to
the Duomo.

Our first glimpse of Lake Como

On our way, we stopped in Bellano for about an hour to walk up a deep gorge with waterfalls that has been harnessed to provide hydropower. Initially, it supported a huge cotton factory that employed 2000 people, but the textile business in Italy has not been competitive for quite a while. Now the power goes to the municipal buildings.

Almost everything interesting in Europe is
uphill from where ever you are.

Pipe for the hydropower system

Devil image on the hydropower building

This spot reminded me of  "Fat Man's Misery"
in the Wisconsin Dells

 

The dead cotton factory

Interesting decor leading to a probable home.

Artwork at the waterfront with a wedding
party taking photos. The bride and her
daughter wore red. Other women in the
wedding wore pink or burgundy.

After that, we went to Varenna, which is nearby and coincidentally is where we spent three days in 2002 when we drove our new BMW around Europe for 3 weeks. The Euro was only worth 85 cents then and we got a huge room with a patio on Lake Como for a very reasonable rate, vs. the $325 /night it would cost now. We had two hours to explore and I wanted to see what was still there from 2002. The answer is: not much. The hotel was there and we went in. However, the bistro  where we had lunch the first day there is gone, as is the laundry on the main street where there is NO sidewalk and you  have to watch for cars before stepping out of the door and the bodega where we got bread, cheese, and a bottle of wine for less than $10. My biggest disappointment is that the stairs up to a ruined castle and probably to the overlook where we had lunch were no where to be found. When I tried to google the path to the castle, it gave me a majorly roundabout way that would have taken an hour. The village has been discovered and ferries from other parts of Lake Como arrived regularly. The good news was that there is a new gelato shop and Davide treated us all to a taste.

Walkway along the waterfront to the center of town.

Gelato shop owner. The gelato was great.

An area of the Hotel du Lac that could have been our room
and patio 17 years ago.

Back on the bus, I reclined my seat and slept off lunch until we neared Tirano. We stopped at a nearby village to see how cured beef was made because it is on the menu for tonight's dinner.  It was a time consuming but interesting process and we got to taste some before we left.

After the salt and other spices are mechanically massaged
into the meat, it is hung for a week to absorb and another
to dry.

Men stringing the meat for hanging.

After two weeks, it ages for another two weeks, either
in casings like these or with none.

Above/below: finished products ready to ship

How it is finally packed for sale in standard grocery stores.

Ready for sale in the butcher's shop.

Our first glimpse of Alps.

Once we were in Tirano, we prepped for dinner and walked to a restaurant started in an old building by a young woman and her boyfriend. We were seated in the wine cellar with stone barrel-shaped ceilings and treated to a creative dinner of a antipasti salad with the cured beef, vegetable lasagne, and apple cake with lemon sauce. 

River and mountains in Tirano on the walk
to dinner

Where we dined. The lady on the left, Francesca, is one of
the owners