7/18 – Our paid, guided tour to Como began at the Cadorna Train Station in Milan just down the street from our apartment. We boarded the train to Como and launched about 9:45. There were no others in the tour group so it was just Renzo our guide, Jim and me. Three walking around on a tour sure beats being in a group of 12 or 20 or more!

Lake Como is absolutely gorgeous and of course very crowded. Most folk know that Europeans generally take their summer vacations in August but in part because of the “breakout” from two years of Covid “confinements,” more folks than usual headed to Italy this summer. It was a little bit cooler up at Como and we enjoyed our tour.

We moved from the Como train station to Piazza Cavour. While Renzo had provided several facts about Como, his first test question came when we entered the piazza: “Fran, do you know what that tree is?” No response from either of us so he pulled a leaf off the tree, crunched it up a bit and asked us to smell it. Then, of course I recognized it by aroma. It is a Bay Leaf Tree or technically, a Bay Laurel. And we thought bay leaves plants were like normal herbs or bushes.

The other “significant” sight on the piazza was a very colorful, huge, Moka coffee pot. Moka pots, made predominantly by Bialetti in Italy, are the standard and most common coffee maker in Italian homes. We have three of them in our house! This one had to be an art object as there was nothing posted to indicate otherwise, and it was on wheels.

We then walked back toward the central part of Como where there are many wonderful buildings with amazing histories. We photographed a few right there on the piazza.

Turns out, the next piazza up from Cavour was the Piazza Duomo, where the cathedral is located. Seems we are focussing on churches a lot over here but we just cannot help it. All are absolutely beautiful; all have some sort of interesting history.

Part of the history here is that this church was built “over” the previous cathedral. While you might not be able to tell it in the photo, the section in the middle of the picture below is part of the old church and one way to tell it existed before the new one is that the floor is about two to three feet lower than either the floor of the new cathedral (that is a relative term, “new,”) and the surrounding area. Renzo taught us a lot about this building, most of which we’ve forgotten. Sometimes we think we should be taking recorders with us to more accurately record the interesting stories and facts but then our intention is to have a log of our activities more than write professional travel guides. However, notice, even though I can’t remember why, the left window has an apex shaped extension that looks like something to divert water whereas the right two windows do not. Sorry for not remembering the story. You might also notice all those bishops along the corner of the newer building or in four columns in the photo above.

So now, let’s go inside. As I suggested, another eureka experience. First is a front-to-back photo of the center nave. What a ceiling! And for Jim, check out those organ pipes! The main door in the back was humongous – note the person standing in front of it.

And on the opposite end of the nave, the main altar.

We then trekked on to see some of the other important sites of the city. Right down one of the alleys as we headed away from the lake and towards the mountains on the South side of the city, we reached what was once the city “limit” so to speak, where once stood a wall and gates. One of the defensive elements was the Porta Torre or Door Tower. With its eight “doors” on only the town side of the tower, it signified that it was strictly a defensive tower. Townspeople could supply and support defenders inside the tower from inside the walls but anyone inside the tower would be vulnerable to townspeople weapons should someone use the tower to attack the town. There are only two windows in the outside wall from which bowmen could defend against attackers while remaining somewhat invulnerable, from the outside that is.

Also along the outer wall on that side of town is another significant tower, the Gattoni Tower. The patrician family of Gattoni owned their own house at the inner corner of the walls. The tower came into the possession of Gattoni, destined for ecclesiastical life, around 1784 and in it he created a laboratory used for his own experiments. Alessandro Volta’s experimental scientific training took place in Gattoni’s physics cabinet in the tower. Only one visitor has ever been allowed inside the tower (Renzo indicated that visitor was Albert Einstein.) The tower is still privately (family) owned. Volta was Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (I love the long names,) the Italian physicist and chemist who was a pioneer of electricity and power and is credited as the inventor of the electric battery and the discoverer of methane. Because of the dangerous nature of his experiments, he wanted a somewhat safe place to run his experiments. The Gattoni family agreed to his use of the tower.

We then walked around to Volta’s home where he was born and his factory, both of which were/are inside the town walls.

At one of the plazas we reached, Renzo explained some of the architectural demands the dictator Mussolini made of Como residents to include requiring them to tear down a building on this piazza. Mussolini’s architectural leanings were for blandness, grays, and structures that exude power, and the power of the state. Anyway, the folks here did as told but using a technique practiced for years, maybe centuries, they numbered each component of the building they “de-constructed” and drew and marked it here on this building so that perhaps “after” Mussolini, they might rebuild the structure. There are numbers in each of the squares. And no, the building was never rebuilt.

From here we walked to another piazza where Renzo pointed out the influence of tradesmen from Germany and Switzerland.

After the tour was over, we walked around town a bit longer and at the recommendation of Renzo, ate lunch at the Pasta Fresca Restaurant. At “pasta fresca” restaurants like this or at a pasta fresca pastacceria, the pasta, whatever type, does NOT come out of a box. It’s made on site.

I feel a little bad about one thing. This was a trip to Lake Como, the place of beautiful houses and gardens along the lake, and a chance to see the Clooneys maybe. Well, we decided that since Michele would arrive on Tuesday, the next day, we’d come back up here on Friday without a guide, show her around town and then all three of us take a boat ride around the lake. You can get on these ferries that stop at several little towns along the shoreline — a hop off, hop on kind of service. Renzo had even given us recommendations on where to jump off, walk around and then get on the next ferry. All the while of course, we would have been taking pictures. But, the weather was oppressively hot and humid all week and Michele still had a bit of jet lag so we opted to stay in Milan, in fact, in our air conditioned apartment. Of course, this means we need a return visit to Lake Como, if only to meet George and take pictures!

After our early afternoon gelato, we headed back to the train station for the 40 minute ride back to Milan, but not before grabbing one more photo with my new found friend, the bay leaf tree!