For the road trip
to Montepulciano with Buzz and Lori, we listened to Diana Krall, but also a
group called Manhattan Transfer. It wasn’t
a theme song, per se, but rather, theme music.
When I was a wee baby gay growing up in Ottawa in the late 1970’s, my best
friend Patrick (Raef) Mikhail introduced me to Manhattan Transfer, and right
then and there, I knew what kind of music I was going to listen to my whole
life.
For the trip to
Barcelona, there were not one, but two theme songs. The first was a duet from 1987 with the late
Freddie Mercury, of Queen fame, and
opera diva Montserrat Caballé celebrating Barcelona and the 1988 Summer
Olympics.
The second was also a duet from one of my favorite musicals, Company.
What to do about
a theme song for a 3-day escape to Bellagio with Buzz and Lori? Well, Bellagio is located on Lago Como, in the northern part of
Italy. The northern part of Italy is
mountainous…and we were going to the
Alps. So…I started channelling Julie
Andrews, and this became our official theme song for the voyage. And what a wonderful voyage it was!
Getting to
Bellagio was a bit like “Trains, Planes and Automobiles”, but with a
substitution of planes for a boat. A cab
took us to Firenze’s main train station where we boarded the high speed train
to Milano. It was only Buzz and Lori’s
second time a train, and while we didn’t quite reach 300km going to Milan, we
certainly did on the return trip! We
changed trains in Milano for the city of Como, which also required a change of
train’s en-route.
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| Buzz and Lori, on the train to Bellagio |
Our connection in
Saronno was only 15 minutes, and we were gabbing on the platform and enjoying
the warm weather and waiting for the train which didn’t come at the appointed
time. Trains in Italy are seldom
late. With a minute before we were
supposed to leave, I said to Buzz & Lori, “I think that train over there is
our train.” Sure enough, we were waiting
on the wrong platform, so we RAN to catch the correct train only to have it
pull away as we reached the top of the stairs.
Luckily, service to Como is every 30 minutes, so we laughed it off and had
a café in the station. All the while I
was kicking myself for having stood on the wrong platform. I should have known
better.
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| Do we look like we missed the train? |
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| A lakeside villa on Lago Como |
With each break in the trees
and around every curve, the snow-capped Alps grew larger. I kept threatening to break-out in our theme
song, but Lori said she’s throw me off the train if I started singing! It’s a good thing I can’t sing.
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| Bellagio - lower right corner |
Once in Como, we
RAN to catch the high-speed ferry boat to Bellagio – with NO time to spare. We
hopped aboard and the ferry departed for a lovely 40 minute ride up Lago Como to Bellagio. The scenery
departing Como was beautiful enough, but once on the lake, it kept getting
better and better. We made 5 or 6 quick
stops along the way, and once Bellagio was in view, Lori pointed and said,
“That’s Bellagio over there!” From a
distance, it was a tiny monochromatic town of beige set against towering
mountains of green. If the Amalfi coast
is a slice of heaven on the Mediterranean, Bellagio is a slice of heaven in the
Alps!
Our lovely hotel
was about 20 paces in front of the ferry dock (pontile) so finding our hotel was not a problem. We checked in, admired the view and the
rooms, and then headed out for a drink. It was a long voyage and we were all
thirsty.
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| Arrival Drinks at San Remo, Bellagio |
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| Lori and Livio |
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| Smooching at Livio's bar |
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| What's a day in Lago Como without a mention of George Clooney |
