Our Trip is Ending
Tues 4/10- Fri 4/13/18
I still had in mind a visit to Varenna so we set out to first visit Dongo, site of Mussolini's capture and execution, and the plan was then to take the ferry from Menaggio to Varenna. The weather was pleasant though the forecast was for showers later and off we went to Dongo which is a bit further north on the lakeshore. There is a WWII museum in Dongo dedicated to the events surrounding the Mussolini capture that I wanted to visit though Dick was less than enthusiastic. The drive up the lakeside was beautiful with the distant Dolomites with their snow visible for the first time in a few days and we arrived in Dongo without incident and somewhat accidentally pulled into a parking lot that turned out to be the site of the museum.
The museum was a strange little place of multiple small rooms separated by heavy drapes with each room with some sort of audio visual display. This part of north Italy was a very active partisan position and it's not something that's well known about the about the war so I like learning about it. I found it interesting but confusing, Dick found it just boring but he tolerated it well.
After the visit we drove to Menaggio as the sky became more threatening. Once again, parking was our nemesis. The ridiculously tiny lot at the ferry site was not just full, but double parked everywhere so we began yet another fruitless search for a parking place. Once again, we gave up after 30-40 minutes of searching as the rain began in earnest. We looked for a place for lunch on the way back down the lake as the rain poured down, saw nothing appealing and ended up at the restaurant near our apartment where we had lunched a few days ago. On the way back to the apartment we stopped at the enoteca where we had bought wine on a couple of occasions to pick up something to bring back to the States with us. The owner recognized us and asked if we would like to see their cellar. We would!! It turns out that it's a family business in existence in the same location since the 1930's and the cellar is full of memorabilia in addition to a very large and impressive collection of wines and spirits. The owner was very proud of his family's history and seemed to enjoy sharing it with us.
Dick woke up not feeling well the next morning but we managed to load up the car and leave around 10. Our plan was to drive to Como, then up the other side of the lake towards Bellagio then on to Milan but found the views not nearly as nice on that side so turned around and headed to Milan. Once again, the afternoon rains began as we arrived at the hotel then returned our rental car. Our last meal in Italy (or so we thought) I had veal Milanese and Dick had mushroom ravioli.
Flight day: we went to the airport quite early since we could have breakfast in the lounge then boarded our flight on time. Everyone settled in for take off when the pilot came on with BAD NEWS! he had noticed a rock in a tire on his pre flight check and we would need to DISEMBARK while it was repaired. Not a problem except we now would miss our connection. 😩 We hung around waiting to reboard, fly to London and take to BA about our next move. They put us up in the Hilton overnight and rebooked us on an earlier flight the next day. We made it home not too much worse for the wear. And that ended the 2018 Italy trip!
I still had in mind a visit to Varenna so we set out to first visit Dongo, site of Mussolini's capture and execution, and the plan was then to take the ferry from Menaggio to Varenna. The weather was pleasant though the forecast was for showers later and off we went to Dongo which is a bit further north on the lakeshore. There is a WWII museum in Dongo dedicated to the events surrounding the Mussolini capture that I wanted to visit though Dick was less than enthusiastic. The drive up the lakeside was beautiful with the distant Dolomites with their snow visible for the first time in a few days and we arrived in Dongo without incident and somewhat accidentally pulled into a parking lot that turned out to be the site of the museum.
The museum was a strange little place of multiple small rooms separated by heavy drapes with each room with some sort of audio visual display. This part of north Italy was a very active partisan position and it's not something that's well known about the about the war so I like learning about it. I found it interesting but confusing, Dick found it just boring but he tolerated it well.
After the visit we drove to Menaggio as the sky became more threatening. Once again, parking was our nemesis. The ridiculously tiny lot at the ferry site was not just full, but double parked everywhere so we began yet another fruitless search for a parking place. Once again, we gave up after 30-40 minutes of searching as the rain began in earnest. We looked for a place for lunch on the way back down the lake as the rain poured down, saw nothing appealing and ended up at the restaurant near our apartment where we had lunched a few days ago. On the way back to the apartment we stopped at the enoteca where we had bought wine on a couple of occasions to pick up something to bring back to the States with us. The owner recognized us and asked if we would like to see their cellar. We would!! It turns out that it's a family business in existence in the same location since the 1930's and the cellar is full of memorabilia in addition to a very large and impressive collection of wines and spirits. The owner was very proud of his family's history and seemed to enjoy sharing it with us.
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| Veal Milanese bigger than the plate |
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