🇮🇹 2023 Autumn Verenna & Bellano

We drove to Menaggio in the morning to find out it was absolutely empty. The shops were closed and it was very quiet on the street. Our original plan was to have coffee here before heading to Verenna. We took a few photos in the empty town (which felt quite nice) and got to the pier for the ferry. The ticket office was closed, so I was panicking at this moment but my boyfriend stayed chill and tried to calm me down.

Thinking back now, waiting anxiously for a ferry in Lake Como felt somewhat poetic. We arrived in Verenna at around lunchtime. We found a restaurant/pub with a great view of the lake, but the food there was not good. My boyfriend who never wasted food didn't finish his dish, you can imagine how bad it was. There is a castle in Verenna that we planned on visiting, but we couldn't find the entrance. Google Maps told us to trespass into a private house to get there. We thought we'd better not get a criminal record in Italy, so we gave up.

Verenna is a cute town, but I felt like something was missing when we were here. It could be the season that it felt a bit too quiet. If I could, I would love to open a second-hand bookstore and cafe here. (Yup, I didn't get many good coffee in Italy this time, quite disappointing.)

We headed toward Bellano to visit Orrido di Bellano. I found this place on my Instagram story. The aesthetic photos taken there were just surreal. The train from Verenna to Bellano is quite frequent, so we didn't have to wait too long.

Orrido di Bellano was a 10-minute walk from the train station. The moment I walked in, I felt like I was in Jurassic Park - the gorge, the ferns and the waterfall. It wouldn't surprise me if a T-Rex came out the next second. The impressive thing about this gorge is that it was located in the centre of the town and how they preserved this natural scenery.

We got the wrong train information on our way back to Verenna, so we waited for another 30 minutes at the train station. Normally I would be impatient, but the mountain view at the platform had a soothing effect, it made me feel fine to wait. Back to Verenna, my boyfriend wanted Gelato (again). We had gelato by the lake waiting for our ferry. I kept looking out for the ferry and ran to the pier when I thought I saw it. Luckily, our ferry was still 15 minutes away.

That could be our ferry!!!

We were planning to have dinner in Menaggio but soon found out most of the restaurants here open at 7:30 pm for dinner. I was so hungry and soon to become hangry, my boyfriend found a bakery and bought some bread and dessert for us. Nice safe for the day.

On our last day in Lake Como, we were supposed to drive to a viewpoint at the border of Italy and Switzerland. You can see Lake Como and Lake Lugano there. On top of the mountain, there is also a giant chair, where my boyfriend wanted to take photos. We were caught in a traffic jam less than 30 minutes into our journey. We realised it might be quite serious after seeing cars in front of us turning around. My boyfriend wanted to ask what was the situation like, but neither of us speaks Italian.

In the end, he asked one of the drivers turning around, "Accidento?" with pure confidence that it is Italian. The driver responded! Though we couldn't understand anything he said, we understood his frustrated expression. So we decided to head back to return the car and then go to Milan.

After arriving in Milan, we went straight to Milan Cathedral. The last time I was here, I was still a student and didn't pay to go see the interior of the cathedral. We went in this time and I had to say it was definitely worth the money. The cathedral museum was great as well although the statues inside were giving the Dr Who weeping angel vibe. (Typing this made me shiver and check behind my back multiple times!)

We had two nice meals in Milan, Ristorante Taiwan and 28 Posti. Ristorante Taiwan is a Taiwanese restaurant and it has so many authentic Taiwanese dishes, the best we had was fried rice vermicelli and dried radish omelette. 28 Posti was in the Navigli district, it was a bit pricey and only had 28 seats inside. We were very lucky to grab a table for two because we arrived just when they opened. We had the tasting menu with six courses, the pasta and steak were amazing.

Before we left Milan, my boyfriend wanted to try the famous gelato (again...) near Sforzesco Castle. We were so excited when we got the gelato and were taking turns to have a bite. Suddenly, the gelato dropped. And that was the end of our Italy trip.