We have a couple of spare days between our house sit in Kandersteg in Switzerland and our next housesit in Castronno in northern Italy, so we decided to explore Como on our route, a resort town on the edge of the Italian Alps. The surrounds of Como are known as a playground of the rich and famous; but the old town is a popular destination for ordinary visitors, and a nice northern Italian village with a medieval centre.
Lake Como
Como is on the shore of Lake Como. Lake Como is a fifty-kilometre long narrow body of water that winds through valleys between the foothills of the Italian Alps, which make a beautiful backdrop to any view of the lake.
Como wraps around the southern-most end of the western branch of the lake, on an alluvial plain between the adjacent steep ridges of hills.
The angled line up the hill on the right of this picture is a funicular tram that goes up to the adjacent village of Brunate, five-hundred metres above on the adjacent ridge. We took this tram to access a bushwalk along the edge of the lake.
This is part of the Como waterfront:
I’ve been looking forward to wandering in the narrow backstreets of a European medieval town again for a long time, and here they are at last, in Como!
medieval Como
Como has many medieval features. As usual, the most spectacular of these are the churches; this is Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta-Duomo di Como, which I will henceforth call “the cathedral”.
Actually, the cathedral is the section on the right; the section on the left is the Broletto, an ancient town hall.
The cathedral is ornate and highly detailed; here are some closer views of it:
The interior has complex arches and a beautifully decorated ceiling.
My interior photos are rather limited quality as I fell over on wet rocks the day before and wrecked my little travel zoom camera, so I’m reduced to taking photos with my mid-range smartphone until I can work how I can get a new camera! The smartphone is okay outside in good light, but struggles in poor light.
This is the Basilica di San Fedele:
The Basilica di San Fedele isn’t as impressive as the cathedral, and another building has been rather grossly attached to the front of it. I didn’t get around to going inside, but the back of the building is an interesting juxtaposition of shapes and angles:
The southern end of Como, where the lake or the adjacent ridges don’t protect it, has the remains of a medieval wall. This is one of the guard towers, Torre di San Vitale:
the Beretta bakery
Anywhere we go we are always on the lookout for interesting cakes and other goodies for snacks. In Como we found a marvellous bakery: Beretta Il Fornaio (the Beretta bakery). The display of cakes, breads, and pastries was just stunning:
Here’s a closer view of the adorable pasticcini (little pastries):
In our one-and-two-part days in Como we visited here a few times; just as well we do most of our exploring on foot!
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