Exploring Griante

2^nd July 2011

It is another sunny day and there is little breeze, so breakfast is served in the ourdoor dining area on the lakeside.

We plan to spend the day wandering around the local area, as according to our hosts, there are a number of attractions here worth seeing. Perhaps the most well known is Villa Carlotta, which is well known for the opulence of the Villa and the incredible gardens that surround it. It is only a short walk from our hotel, so we head off at around 9.30am.

Villa Carlotta

The Villa is well worth a visit. It is hard to imagine a better location for a villa than the location it has looking across the lake to Bellagio. The Villa has a mixture of famous artworks and rooms furnished to depict how life would have been when it was occupied, (it was built in the late 17^th century) and the views from the upstairs balcony are priceless.

The main entrance to the grounds

The covered walkway is covered with fruit trees bearing fruit

The entry foyer

The rooms have elobarate ceilings

Views from the balcony

The few owners of the Villa were keen botanists, and the magnificent gardens (extending for some 70,000m2 around the Villa) were developed and improved by each owner. It is amazing the variety of plants that seem to thrive here. If you were looking for somewhere peaceful to come and sit down with a book for a few hours, it would be hard to find anywhere more suitable. We ended up spending 2 hours there in order to cover what there is to see.

                                                  Some shots of the gardens

We then continued walking into Tremezzo, to find somewhere for lunch, and found a lovely lakeside park, with a small café. We sat outside next to the lake and had a focaccia and a beer, and the usual stunning scenery. Just next to the park was a marina, full of small boats. As it is now Saturday, they are a few more recreational boats on the lake.

Lunch by the lake

Marina at Tremezzo

It was then back to the hotel for a rest, as it was now the hottest part of the day, and more comfortable out of the sun. We intend walking to the Church of San Martino later this afternoon, which is perched high in the Cliffside overlooking the lake to get the best view of the area possible.

The white dot in the centre of this photo is the church

At 4pm we ventured back out, and seeing the location of the church from the lakeside is a bit daunting, it is 470m above the lake level. In order to get there we first had to walk along the lakeside road in the direction of Menaggio, we had not walked in this direction before, and were surprised at the number of beautiful (and very large) Villas there are just around the corner from our hotel. There is also a lakeside “beach” that was reasonably popular.

Lakeside beach

A lakeside villa in Griante

It is a long and tiring climb up to the church on a well defined cobblestone pathway. Carole made it 2/3rds of the way, and I made it to the church. The view is unbelievable, unfortunately the small camera does not do it justice.

The Church of San Martino

View from the Church showing the Bellagio peninsula

Looking down on Griante

One of the many luxury villas

We had company on the walk

We walked back through the village of Griante, past some of the huge villas, and even the cemetery was beautifully kept and spotlessly clean like everywhere else.

The cemetery at Griante

A few hours later we were back at the hotel, having a quiet drink and getting ready for dinner. We decided to eat at the Hotel again tonight, given the quality of the food on our first night here. Once again it was very good.