Rain, Snow, and Sun: 15 Glorious August Days in Italy
Sep 5th, 2007 | 03:01 PM
#1
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Rain, Snow, and Sun: 15 Glorious August Days in Italy
Background
First let me begin by stating that although I love to read people's trip reports, I find it so hard to write them. And sometimes (like last year) I run out of steam before I finish them. So hoping that I won't let that happen this year, I will begin.
This trip was taken the last two weeks of August. This is when we always go to Italy. Although many find the weather too hot, we really like this time of year and have found it to be a good time to go. After all, we are stuck in our offices all day long and we view this as our summer break, so we want it to be hot! Interestingly, we never have found the crowds to be really bad. I think, although I don't know, that we arrive in Italy just as the Italians are starting to wind up their vacations and before the onslaught of tourists who hate to travel in August begin to arrive. Anyway, that's my theory.
The trip participants were DH and I. We are both in our early 30s and are New Yorkers. I am not sure how many trips we've taken to Italy previously, but I think this may have been our sixth or so. We covered one new destination and went back to two favorites.
We went to three main destinations: Varenna, Cinque Terre, and Rome. We also spent one day and night in Bardonecchia visiting friends.
First let me begin by stating that although I love to read people's trip reports, I find it so hard to write them. And sometimes (like last year) I run out of steam before I finish them. So hoping that I won't let that happen this year, I will begin.
This trip was taken the last two weeks of August. This is when we always go to Italy. Although many find the weather too hot, we really like this time of year and have found it to be a good time to go. After all, we are stuck in our offices all day long and we view this as our summer break, so we want it to be hot! Interestingly, we never have found the crowds to be really bad. I think, although I don't know, that we arrive in Italy just as the Italians are starting to wind up their vacations and before the onslaught of tourists who hate to travel in August begin to arrive. Anyway, that's my theory.
The trip participants were DH and I. We are both in our early 30s and are New Yorkers. I am not sure how many trips we've taken to Italy previously, but I think this may have been our sixth or so. We covered one new destination and went back to two favorites.
We went to three main destinations: Varenna, Cinque Terre, and Rome. We also spent one day and night in Bardonecchia visiting friends.
Sep 6th, 2007 | 05:53 AM
#3
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Flights
We ended up finding good rates on business class tickets, so for the first time, we flew business to Italy.
Wow - what a difference!
We flew from JFK through Madrid and into Milan on the outbound. And Rome through Madrid and into JFK on the return. As we are price sensitive, hence why it was our first time in business, we were on Iberia as they had the best price. We had only flown Iberia once before to Madrid (in coach) and our experience was so horrid that we had sworn we would never fly them again. But with the good fare, we took our chances. We basically figured that no matter how bad it was, it would have to be better than coach.
I can't compare our experience on Iberia to any other airlines' business service, but based on the typical coach experience, it was a huge and fantastic upgrade and we thought well worth it.
We ended up finding good rates on business class tickets, so for the first time, we flew business to Italy.
Wow - what a difference!
We flew from JFK through Madrid and into Milan on the outbound. And Rome through Madrid and into JFK on the return. As we are price sensitive, hence why it was our first time in business, we were on Iberia as they had the best price. We had only flown Iberia once before to Madrid (in coach) and our experience was so horrid that we had sworn we would never fly them again. But with the good fare, we took our chances. We basically figured that no matter how bad it was, it would have to be better than coach.
I can't compare our experience on Iberia to any other airlines' business service, but based on the typical coach experience, it was a huge and fantastic upgrade and we thought well worth it.
Sep 6th, 2007 | 08:09 AM
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Varenna - 3 Nights
This was our "new" destination on this trip.
As so many posters we struggled with what town to stay in. There seem to be so many variables - do you have a car, what kind of experience do you want (quiet, more things to do), etc. Originally we had four days planned in the Lakes, but friends invited us to their home and so we cut one day off. And shortly after that, we conclusively decided no car. Varenna is on the train line. And Varenna sounded sleepy (a good thing - we live in NYC) and as this was the first leg of our journey, we wanted peace and quiet, thus Varenna became the natural choice. And for us it was the right choice.
We thought that it was the prettiest as between Mennagio, Bellagio, and Varenna. However, there are only a few shops in Varenna, so if you are looking to shop, I am not convinced it would work so well. In fact, we were looking to buy some wine to bring to our friends in Bardonecchia. According to our hotel, the only wine shop really is the little grocery store. We looked in from the outside and we saw about 5 bottles of wine on the wall. They may have been amazing, but we wanted more selection, so we ended up going over to Bellagio where we found a very nice wine shop (maybe there are more?). That said, Varenna has many wonderful little restaurants and it is truly beautiful. So if I were going to go to Lake Como again, I think we would again stay in Varenna. My second choice would be Bellagio.
We didn't find the lakes or any of the towns to be overrun with tourists. They all had tourists, but nothing like outside my office in the Times Square / theater district of NYC. Of course, the weather was really crappy for our stay, so they may have kept many tourists away.
This was our "new" destination on this trip.
As so many posters we struggled with what town to stay in. There seem to be so many variables - do you have a car, what kind of experience do you want (quiet, more things to do), etc. Originally we had four days planned in the Lakes, but friends invited us to their home and so we cut one day off. And shortly after that, we conclusively decided no car. Varenna is on the train line. And Varenna sounded sleepy (a good thing - we live in NYC) and as this was the first leg of our journey, we wanted peace and quiet, thus Varenna became the natural choice. And for us it was the right choice.
We thought that it was the prettiest as between Mennagio, Bellagio, and Varenna. However, there are only a few shops in Varenna, so if you are looking to shop, I am not convinced it would work so well. In fact, we were looking to buy some wine to bring to our friends in Bardonecchia. According to our hotel, the only wine shop really is the little grocery store. We looked in from the outside and we saw about 5 bottles of wine on the wall. They may have been amazing, but we wanted more selection, so we ended up going over to Bellagio where we found a very nice wine shop (maybe there are more?). That said, Varenna has many wonderful little restaurants and it is truly beautiful. So if I were going to go to Lake Como again, I think we would again stay in Varenna. My second choice would be Bellagio.
We didn't find the lakes or any of the towns to be overrun with tourists. They all had tourists, but nothing like outside my office in the Times Square / theater district of NYC. Of course, the weather was really crappy for our stay, so they may have kept many tourists away.
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Sep 6th, 2007 | 12:08 PM
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Varenna - continued
We stayed at the Albergo Milano. http://www.varenna.net/. In my opinion it is a perfect little hotel. The rooms are just as pictured on their website. We had a room on the top floor (which is the second floor in American terms and the third in Italian) (with a little balcony) overlooking the lake. There was no air conditioning but we didn't need it). There was a ceiling fan in the room so I think that if it was hot, it would likely suffice. If someone had mobility problems, I might not recommend the hotel, if only because you had to climb up two flights to get to our room (there is no elevator). However, if someone had mobility problems, I probably wouldn't recommend Varenna as it is planted into a hill (mountain?) and so there are all kinds of stairs that are like streets. Anyway, the room itself was furnished with antiques, but in a modern fresh way and so the room was very serene. The bathroom, while very small, had a good size shower with excellent water pressure. The hotel has roughly 10 rooms so it is very small and you get very personal service. There aren't televisions in the rooms, but that is not a problem for us, as we don't typically watch TV while on vacation. The price we paid for our room was 145 Euro per night.
We stayed at the Albergo Milano. http://www.varenna.net/. In my opinion it is a perfect little hotel. The rooms are just as pictured on their website. We had a room on the top floor (which is the second floor in American terms and the third in Italian) (with a little balcony) overlooking the lake. There was no air conditioning but we didn't need it). There was a ceiling fan in the room so I think that if it was hot, it would likely suffice. If someone had mobility problems, I might not recommend the hotel, if only because you had to climb up two flights to get to our room (there is no elevator). However, if someone had mobility problems, I probably wouldn't recommend Varenna as it is planted into a hill (mountain?) and so there are all kinds of stairs that are like streets. Anyway, the room itself was furnished with antiques, but in a modern fresh way and so the room was very serene. The bathroom, while very small, had a good size shower with excellent water pressure. The hotel has roughly 10 rooms so it is very small and you get very personal service. There aren't televisions in the rooms, but that is not a problem for us, as we don't typically watch TV while on vacation. The price we paid for our room was 145 Euro per night.
Sep 7th, 2007 | 06:21 AM
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Varenna - continued
On our first night and final nights, we ate at the hotel restaurant where the owner of the hotel is the chef. The food was fantastic and so was the view from their gorgeous terrace. (Luckily we got amazing seats on the terrace the first night because after that the rains came!). Each night the chef puts together a 3 (or 4 if you want cheese) course menu with two choices for each course. You can get all three/four for I think about 30E, or you can choose and just have one or two courses. Menus like this can sometimes be challenging for us as DH has a severe food allergy, but like an iron chef the chef was up for the challenge. I wish I could tell you what we ate, but other than the fact it was great, I just don't recall. Might have been the wine
There is not much to say about our first day. We took the bus from Malpensa to the central train station and then picked up a train from there. By the time we arrived at the hotel, and took quick showers, it was dinnertime (and then bedtime). So, we concluded our first day in Italy, watching the sunset, eating our dinner, and being so happy that we were finally in Italy again.
On our second day, we decided that we would explore Varenna and then head over to Bellagio. Which is what we did. But the rains came. Which put a bit of damper (or is it dampness) on things. And on our third day we hung out in Varenna, went to Mennagio, and then Bellagio - this day it was truly rainy. I would give you more specifics, but we did the obvious.
Basically it rained off and on (more on than off) and was chilly our second and third days in Varenna. Frankly, it can be tough to keep spirits high when this happens in smallish places. (I kept kicking myself for letting DH talk me out of bringing my travel Scrabble game!) But we did our best to have fun as it was our summer vacation!!! So many of the things that we had planned to do became no longer fun sounding. We had wanted to hike, but hiking in the rain didn't sound like a great plan so we scrapped it. And although we were wearing our warmest clothes, they seemed truly inadequate and wet. So basically we spent the two days town hopping in the main parts of each town and sitting in cafes and restaurants.
Besides our excellent meals at the hotel, we also particularly enjoyed Il Cavatappi in Varenna. I highly recommend it. It is a tiny restaurant - about 5 tables - and the food was unbelievably good. Everything that came out looked to die for! Of course, I cannot remember what we ate, but it was terrific as was the wine!
All in all we found the lake area to be a good, but not great, destination for us. However, we realize that we had truly crap weather (for August at least) and this definitely impacted our enjoyment of the lake area. I guess we felt that for us there wasn't as much to do (of course rain and the stopping of the ferries didn't help) which is weird because we found millions of things to do in the Cinque Terre which are also smallish. I think that if you go in the summer and have great weather the lakes can be glorious, but if you are super active like DH and I and it is cold and rainy, then it was a bit too slow. The scenery however is top notch and for that alone I think it is worth seeing. For us though, we prefer other parts of Italy more.
At any rate after three days, we got up at the crack of dawn and dragged our bags to the train station for our trip to Bardonecchia....
On our first night and final nights, we ate at the hotel restaurant where the owner of the hotel is the chef. The food was fantastic and so was the view from their gorgeous terrace. (Luckily we got amazing seats on the terrace the first night because after that the rains came!). Each night the chef puts together a 3 (or 4 if you want cheese) course menu with two choices for each course. You can get all three/four for I think about 30E, or you can choose and just have one or two courses. Menus like this can sometimes be challenging for us as DH has a severe food allergy, but like an iron chef the chef was up for the challenge. I wish I could tell you what we ate, but other than the fact it was great, I just don't recall. Might have been the wine
There is not much to say about our first day. We took the bus from Malpensa to the central train station and then picked up a train from there. By the time we arrived at the hotel, and took quick showers, it was dinnertime (and then bedtime). So, we concluded our first day in Italy, watching the sunset, eating our dinner, and being so happy that we were finally in Italy again.
On our second day, we decided that we would explore Varenna and then head over to Bellagio. Which is what we did. But the rains came. Which put a bit of damper (or is it dampness) on things. And on our third day we hung out in Varenna, went to Mennagio, and then Bellagio - this day it was truly rainy. I would give you more specifics, but we did the obvious.
Basically it rained off and on (more on than off) and was chilly our second and third days in Varenna. Frankly, it can be tough to keep spirits high when this happens in smallish places. (I kept kicking myself for letting DH talk me out of bringing my travel Scrabble game!) But we did our best to have fun as it was our summer vacation!!! So many of the things that we had planned to do became no longer fun sounding. We had wanted to hike, but hiking in the rain didn't sound like a great plan so we scrapped it. And although we were wearing our warmest clothes, they seemed truly inadequate and wet. So basically we spent the two days town hopping in the main parts of each town and sitting in cafes and restaurants.
Besides our excellent meals at the hotel, we also particularly enjoyed Il Cavatappi in Varenna. I highly recommend it. It is a tiny restaurant - about 5 tables - and the food was unbelievably good. Everything that came out looked to die for! Of course, I cannot remember what we ate, but it was terrific as was the wine!
All in all we found the lake area to be a good, but not great, destination for us. However, we realize that we had truly crap weather (for August at least) and this definitely impacted our enjoyment of the lake area. I guess we felt that for us there wasn't as much to do (of course rain and the stopping of the ferries didn't help) which is weird because we found millions of things to do in the Cinque Terre which are also smallish. I think that if you go in the summer and have great weather the lakes can be glorious, but if you are super active like DH and I and it is cold and rainy, then it was a bit too slow. The scenery however is top notch and for that alone I think it is worth seeing. For us though, we prefer other parts of Italy more.
At any rate after three days, we got up at the crack of dawn and dragged our bags to the train station for our trip to Bardonecchia....
Sep 10th, 2007 | 07:26 AM
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Bardonecchia - 1 night
For our train ride to Bardonecchia, we had opted for summer-wear, as we were trying to be positive. I wore a skirt and light cotton sweater, DH wore shorts and a t-shirt. We also did this in case we got more rain as we didn't want to get our only warm clothes wet and then be stuck in them all day. The ride itself was only about 4.5 hours, but we had to make two changes so we were happy when we pulled into town at noon.
Waiting for us at the train were our two friends from New York. His family lives in Bardonecchia and they were spending part of their summer in town with his mom and siblings. Anyway, when we stepped off the train we were greeted with weather that I can only describe as "November". Holy Cow it was cold! And we were not dressed for it. Our friends were all bundled up - my girlfriend was wearing her SIL's clothes as prior to Bardonecchia she had been in Sicily with the kids and she too was unprepared for the blustery weather.
We stopped off at our hotel to changed into warmest clothes (day 3 on those clothes - ugh). Our friend made the reservation and found the hotel for us. I can't even recall its name. But it was a nice place - the location was near where the snowboarding runs were for the Olympics. We were only there to sleep anyway, so I guess it didn't matter.
The original plan was for us to have a cookout at our friend's house (our friend is a chef). But as the weather was really cold and damp this idea wasn't going to work.
So instead, our friends, one of their friends, and our friends' year and a half old head up to Rochemolles for lunch. What a tiny and adorable village. We went to the restaurant - I think it was the only one - if there is more than one, there couldn't have been more than two. We had a sampler of a million different things. Our friend handled the ordering. A wonderful lunch. After lunch we wandered around Rochemolles. It is a tiny village and very picturesque, although I can't imagine actually living there - it would be too quiet for my taste.
After our wandering, it began to rain a bit, so we piled into the car and headed up into the mountains. Apparently the road we were on becomes the highest in Italy or perhaps Europe, I am not sure. We drove and drove and drove higher and higher with millions of switchbacks. We were stopped briefly by three separate cows who took their time meandering across the narrow and muddy road (looked more like a driveway to me).
The scenery was spectacular! We didn't have the best day as it was cloudy, but you really could tell this area is something special. At any rate, after an hour or so, it began to snow. And so we saw our first snow of the season! And shortly thereafter, my friend realized that he was totally out of gas, so we decided to come back down the mountain and head back to Bardonecchia.
Arriving back in Bardonecchia on fumes, we picked up our friends' other daughter and wandered around town. A delightful place. I imagine it gets plenty of tourists in the winter as it is a big ski area, but on this day in August, it was all locals.
After wandering around and then hanging out at our friend's house, we all went to dinner at our friend's best friend's restaurant. He brought us dish upon delicious dish of all kinds of pizzas, pastas, meats, etc. We ate so much and it was all so wonderful. It might have been one of the best meals we have ever had in Italy.
By then it was late, after midnight, so our friend dropped us off at the hotel as we had a 6:50am train the next morning for the Cinque Terre....
For our train ride to Bardonecchia, we had opted for summer-wear, as we were trying to be positive. I wore a skirt and light cotton sweater, DH wore shorts and a t-shirt. We also did this in case we got more rain as we didn't want to get our only warm clothes wet and then be stuck in them all day. The ride itself was only about 4.5 hours, but we had to make two changes so we were happy when we pulled into town at noon.
Waiting for us at the train were our two friends from New York. His family lives in Bardonecchia and they were spending part of their summer in town with his mom and siblings. Anyway, when we stepped off the train we were greeted with weather that I can only describe as "November". Holy Cow it was cold! And we were not dressed for it. Our friends were all bundled up - my girlfriend was wearing her SIL's clothes as prior to Bardonecchia she had been in Sicily with the kids and she too was unprepared for the blustery weather.
We stopped off at our hotel to changed into warmest clothes (day 3 on those clothes - ugh). Our friend made the reservation and found the hotel for us. I can't even recall its name. But it was a nice place - the location was near where the snowboarding runs were for the Olympics. We were only there to sleep anyway, so I guess it didn't matter.
The original plan was for us to have a cookout at our friend's house (our friend is a chef). But as the weather was really cold and damp this idea wasn't going to work.
So instead, our friends, one of their friends, and our friends' year and a half old head up to Rochemolles for lunch. What a tiny and adorable village. We went to the restaurant - I think it was the only one - if there is more than one, there couldn't have been more than two. We had a sampler of a million different things. Our friend handled the ordering. A wonderful lunch. After lunch we wandered around Rochemolles. It is a tiny village and very picturesque, although I can't imagine actually living there - it would be too quiet for my taste.
After our wandering, it began to rain a bit, so we piled into the car and headed up into the mountains. Apparently the road we were on becomes the highest in Italy or perhaps Europe, I am not sure. We drove and drove and drove higher and higher with millions of switchbacks. We were stopped briefly by three separate cows who took their time meandering across the narrow and muddy road (looked more like a driveway to me).
The scenery was spectacular! We didn't have the best day as it was cloudy, but you really could tell this area is something special. At any rate, after an hour or so, it began to snow. And so we saw our first snow of the season! And shortly thereafter, my friend realized that he was totally out of gas, so we decided to come back down the mountain and head back to Bardonecchia.
Arriving back in Bardonecchia on fumes, we picked up our friends' other daughter and wandered around town. A delightful place. I imagine it gets plenty of tourists in the winter as it is a big ski area, but on this day in August, it was all locals.
After wandering around and then hanging out at our friend's house, we all went to dinner at our friend's best friend's restaurant. He brought us dish upon delicious dish of all kinds of pizzas, pastas, meats, etc. We ate so much and it was all so wonderful. It might have been one of the best meals we have ever had in Italy.
By then it was late, after midnight, so our friend dropped us off at the hotel as we had a 6:50am train the next morning for the Cinque Terre....
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