A Return to Travel – Lake Como

Lago de Como, Italia. Diego Delso / CC BY-SA (Source)

I’ve traveled to so many places over the years, and I’ve always felt fortunate to see many places that I’ll probably only travel to once – either because of distance, cost, or unique nature of the location.  Yet in these days when we wonder when travel will resume again – especially here in the United States where travel outside the country is pretty much impossible right now, and with even inter-state travel restricted with quarantines and COVID testing – I’ve been thinking about places I would like to see again.

One “top of the list” location for me is Lake Como in Italy.  I was last there over six years ago, and while I wasn’t a guest of George Clooney, I can say that it was an amazing and elegant place.  My lodging was a beautiful old house overlooking the lake, in a guest apartment with its own private garden (picture).  Bonus: it was next door to the elegant Villa d’Este, but was about 1/10 of the price of that luxurious hotel. 

While my garden might have lacked the sweeping marble stairs and the topiary landscaping (see https://www.villadeste.com/en/ ), it also shared the same waterfront view, beautiful weather, lake access, and proximity to restaurants/shops in the town of Cernobbio.  Edith Wharton, the American novelist, who was also a keen travel writer, was a fan and frequent visitor – incorporating life in the lake area into both her signature publication on garden design, “Italian Villas and Their Gardens” as well as one of her lesser known works of fiction, “The Glimpses of the Moon.” The most famous line in the latter is also most indicative of life on Lake Como: “The only way not to think about money is to have a great deal of it.”  With neighbors like Clooney, Richard Branson, who can argue with that? 

Laura Flippin | Wheels Up