{"id":2082,"date":"2013-06-14T20:19:14","date_gmt":"2013-06-14T19:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=2082"},"modified":"2026-05-25T05:57:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T04:57:59","slug":"peace-and-quiet-above-the-lakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2013\/06\/14\/peace-and-quiet-above-the-lakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Peace And Quiet Above The Lakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

On day two of week ten we left high security Camping Bella Italia at 10am.\u00a0 We handed over our paperwork, wrist tags, personal passes and proved that we had paid the bill the previous day.\u00a0 It was harder than leaving France!\u00a0 We did a little detour via Sirmione for a quick peek and then joined the autostrada at Desenzano del Garda.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"ake
Lake Garda from Sirmione<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We zoomed past Brescia and Bergamo before exiting the motorway and heading north.\u00a0 Before reaching Lecco, we passed through Bondi\u2026.!\u00a0 But it was so tiny that if you had blinked, you would have missed it.\u00a0 From Lecco, the road along the side of Lago di Lecco was very narrow and twisting, the only wide sections being inside three long dark tunnels.\u00a0 Yes, more tunnels!\u00a0 Before Bellagio we turned up a steep road and found Clarke Camping (English owners) on the top of a hill.\u00a0 There\u2019s only a few other campers here and they\u2019ve already grabbed all the shady areas under trees in the top field.\u00a0 So we have the whole of the lower field all to ourselves, and we have the most stunning views up Lake Como and across to the mountains in the west, the north, the east and the hills behind us in the south.\u00a0 All we can hear are the birds singing, bees buzzing and the distant peel of church bells.\u00a0 It\u2019s exactly the place we needed to find for a couple of days of peace and quiet.\u00a0 This is bella Italia.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"
Our view from Eileen over Lakes Como and Lecco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

What light through yonder window breaks? A very hazy light.\u00a0 A mist hung over the lake, when we looked out of Eileen\u2019s windows the next morning and the tops of the mountains didn\u2019t even show us their outlines.\u00a0 If we hadn\u2019t seen the mountains the day before, we wouldn\u2019t have believed they were there.\u00a0 But it was still so beautiful.\u00a0 We got lots of chores done in the morning; all the time relishing the tranquillity of the place we were in, and then just before 1pm we set off on foot downhill.\u00a0 And we kept going downhill and I began to dread the walk back uphill later\u2026.. Finally, we found ourselves down at lake level in the village of Pescallo and as it was nearing 2pm and worried that lunch would not be served much longer, we went in to the only eatery we could find, the Ristorante di Pergola.\u00a0 It turned out to be a good decision. The tables were set right on the edge of the lake and we both ordered fish because it seemed appropriate that close to the water.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Our
Our lunchtime view across Lago di Lecco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"
Pescallo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Suitably sated, we set off through the village and up an enormous staircase of cobbles to a ridge and then down an enormous staircase in to the village of Bellagio.\u00a0 The streets were all very narrow and cobbled, though some small cars were somehow still managing to weave their way through.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Steep
Steep streets in Bellagio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Down on the waterfront, with gelatos in hand (tiramisu for Rodney and Toblerone for me; we’re trying not to repeat flavours unless absolutely necessary), we watched the pleasure boats and ferries criss-crossing Lake Como and Lake Lecco.<\/p>\n

\"Lago
Lago di Como<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

From Bellagio, we ambled right along the edge of Lake Como, past the Lido and the beautiful gardens of Villa Melzi to the silent village of Loppia.\u00a0 We had hoped to get a cold drink here before our climb back uphill, but there was only one caf\u00e9 and it was well and truly shut.\u00a0 So we headed slowly up through the villages of Taronico and Suira, both of which had no cafes and arrived back, very thirsty, at the campsite just before 6pm.\u00a0 We both needed showers as it had been a very still, hot and sticky day and the haze unfortunately never fully lifted.\u00a0 Then we sat outside to finally enjoy a cold drink, or three, and eat hot goats cheese on slices of toasted baguette, whilst enjoying the view until dusk.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Looking
Looking back at Bellagio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On day two of week ten we left high security Camping Bella Italia at 10am.\u00a0 We handed over our paperwork, wrist tags, personal passes and proved that we had paid the bill the previous day.\u00a0 It was harder than leaving France!\u00a0 We did a little detour via Sirmione for a quick peek and then joined […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8391,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2082\/revisions\/8391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}