Dear reader(s), future self, & bots:
Please note: we decided to travel after weighing all the factors and potential risks related to the Coronavirus. On the day we flew to Milan from Amsterdam, Italy had about 4 new cases per million people (U.S. had about 214 cases per million people….about 53x higher); there were about 6 per million in The Netherlands.
Charlie, Scott & Natalie enjoying the view of Lake Como from Varenna.
Earlier this summer, Natalie and I were invited to join some friends for a trip to Italy’s version of Gull Lake: Lake Como (the town of Varenna). Our much-smarter friends took a proper European holiday that lasted 3 weeks, split between Chamonix and Lake Como but we managed to see and do a lot in our short time in Italy. It was our first time traveling in the COVID-19 world, and our first exposure to wide-spread mask use: in the Netherlands only about 9% of people were masks compared to 59% in the U.S. and 83% in Italy! (according to a July 17th piece from the NYT).
Enough with the boring statistics: we had a great time on our trip and it has been well over 14 days since we returned, so we are in the clear! One of the great things about living in Amsterdam continues to be the ability to visit very different cultures so quickly (we live in the “old” part of the city and it only takes 23 min to get to the airport, and the flight to Milan is less than 2 hours).
Highlights of the trip (in no particular order):
Spending time with our friends Erin & Scott and their son, Charlie. And the amazing meals we shared, including a wonderful lunch at Agriturismo Gulliver, a small pig farm in the hills with a small restaurant on the side. We had pork served about 7 different ways, paired nicely with a few local wines. It appears they haven’t updated their website in about 20 years (presumably because they have been so focused on growing tasty pigs).
The Lake Como region is stunningly beautiful; we rented apartments with amazing views of the lake and mountains (into Switzerland).
We hiked part of the Sentiero del Viandante trail, from Varena to Bellano.
I had a really nice bike ride along the Eastern shore of the lake (a less than ideal out-and-back, poor route planning from me).
Spending time with our new friend, Giorgio (a long-time Varenna resident and a guy who knows everyone in town) who runs Varenna Horizons (which we highly recommend).
