Italian Lakes

Italy’s got lakes!

Lake Como with the Italian Alps in the background.  What is all that white stuff up there?

When we arrived in Varenna on Lake Como we increased the population such that they closed the grocery store until they could lay in enough supplies to meet the increased demand.

We decided to make Varenna our base of operations in the Italian lakes because it was where the train and the ferry both had terminals.   It is a cute little Italian town with just a main street with stairs leading off to either side.  On one side the stairs go steeply down to the water and on the other they go steeply up the mountain.  The interesting thing about the stairs is that they are exactly the wrong width to make walking down them easy.  The stairs are made of rounded river rocks embedded in the soil with nice green moss growing up between and they slope just slightly down.  It was raining.  Those rocks looked wet, hard, cold and slippery. I imagined myself whipping down the stairs on my behind and ending up having my squeals drowned by the very cold lake water.

Miraculously that did not happen.

I guess centuries of living in that area have made the residents wise as to the behavior of the environment.  The stairs were not slippery at all – just steep.   We had to go down a short way to get to our accommodation and it went without a hitch.  It was just strange that we had to go down these stairs to a door that opened on some stairs going up and we ended up on the third floor overlooking the only road.  It seemed that we could have left out the “down the hill” bit.  But, this is Italy and this town was built when people were not so lazy. 

Layering up for Cappuccino

 When we arrived in Varenna our hosts, Marie and Peitro, met us at the railroad station.  They were a very sweet couple with all the incredible warmth and friendliness that typifies the rural Italians.  As we got off the train we could see them on the platform jumping up and down waving at us.  Marie keep poking at Pietro and making sweeping motions at her chin miming a beard.  I guess that is how they recognized us.  It was such a warm welcome that we felt immediately at home.  

As it turned out they had only a few words in English and we had less in Italian.  We both used up our respective vocabularies immediately.  Marie pointed at the lake and saying “lake” repeatedly and I kept answering “Si” repeatedly.   Pietro, meanwhile, kept up a running commentary telling us all kinds of interesting things and telling us many hilarious anecdotes and laughing wholeheartedly.  At least we hope that’s what he was doing.  Both Marie and Pietro accompanied their conversation with big smiles and flamboyant gestures.   Telen and I sat there in typical polite frozen Canadian fashion and kept apologizing for not understanding.

Varenna on Lake Como

My vision of the Italian lakes came from the movie “Casino Royale” where James Bond awakes to find himself sitting in the sun while recuperating at a majestic Villa overlooking a beautiful lake at the base of the Alps. 

It wasn’t quite like that.

Venice was warm and sunny - almost too warm at times.  Varenna, on the other hand was rainy, windy and cold.  The Alps, indeed, were there but they had this white powdery stuff on top of them and the white stuff seemed terribly close to where we were.  The usual Italian pastime of sitting at the outside table with a cappuccino was still doable as long as you wore enough layers.   As to the Villa – well we could vaguely see it from the ferry a long way down the lake.

Actually there are a lot of grandiose Villas on the Italian lakes.  The problem is that the owners are aristocrats who were raised in a life of leisure and are finding out that the money is either going or gone.  They have no skills and do not know what this work thingy is.  Frustratingly they are not allowed to tax the peasants any more or raid the neighboring kingdom to top up the coffers so they have to sell off their Villas to those very peasants.  Such a shame.

Aristocratic Villa.  Any offers?

The Villa I mentioned of “Casino Royale” fame was built by a Cardinal on the site of a Franciscan monastery.  How ironic is that.  A huge Villa being built by a high-ranking church official sponsored by the donations of the poor people who expected him use it to take care of them on the site of a monastery whose monks who took vows of poverty.

What are Italians famous for?  Food!  On our last day in Italy Telen booked us an Italian cooking class.  The chef, Moreno, picked us up in the village and drove us up to his restaurant in another little village called Gittano.  Gittano is a long way up the mountain and I lost count of the number of switchbacks on the road up.  To make matters worse the road was barely wide enough for the car and Moreno kept sounding the horn at each blind corner.  Thank goodness for Telen and her acupuncture…

Moreno was a great instructor although it was a bit like being taught by Roberto Benigni (of “Life is Beautiful” fame).  I kept expecting him to break out with, “Buongiorno, Principessa!”  He didn’t, but he did bend over and kiss Telen’s hand. 

Geeze! Those bloody Italians!

 

Chef Telen and Chef Moreno making homemade pasta

Chef Moreno welcomed us into his restaurant with a cappuccino and proceeded to show us how to make ricotta cheese and an extraordinarily delicious pasta sauce.  He then showed us the technique for making fresh pasta - out of which we made tortelloni and fettuccini.  Part way through the day we were given snacks and wine. I think I may not have been his star pupil.  Periodically I would catch him staring at me over the top of his glasses.

The Tortelloni we made.  Nummers!

You could tell that he really loved what he did.  The way he cooked was like his mama and grandma. When asked how much of each ingredient he used he said, “Enough!”  Hard to quantify that!  He was very aware of all the modern equipment available but he believed in getting in there with both hands to imbue the food with passion and love. 

Man these Italians are suave!

Chef Moreno doing his thing

At the end of the class after we had eaten all the great food and drunk all the great wine he drove us back down to the village.  Man, those steps to the apartment were hard to negotiate after that - with all that unbalanced weight, high blood sugar and the destabilizing effect of the wine.

What a great way to end our trip to Italy!  Beautiful scenery, warm friendly people and fabulous food.  You have to hand it to the Italians – the know how to live. 

Dolce Vita!

Telen writes:

Arrivederci! (i.e. goodbye) Italy!  Once again, Italy has not disappointed us.  Most of the people we met were warm and welcoming, in a down to earth fashion…just like the food.  I would like to emulate the Italian attitude towards life.  Whatever happens, dress and act like you are really cool.  Take time out to prepare and eat delicious foods with friends and family.  Take time to talk to your neighbours and don’t forget to wave your hands to accentuate your expressions!