Lake Como Italy And Lugano Switzerland

Imagine if you were wealthy and you could have a house anywhere you'd like. Maybe you could have multiple houses in different places. Where would you go? Well, peeps like George Clooney and Madonna at some point decided that they liked the area known as Como enough to buy houses there. Como, Italy is less than an hour north of Milan and is almost on the border with Switzerland. Diana had been there before but I was curious why they'd chosen to have houses there so we went to check it out.

Como's a small town located on Lake Como. The old center was a walled city at one point and some of the towers and fortifications can still be seen around town.

The weather on the day we went was really crappy, complete with driving rain and even some hail. Still, there's something about walking around a medieval village when it's cold and rainy. I think it's much easier to imagine what it was like "back in the day" when sewage ran down the middle of the streets and people were dying of the black death...

...just kidding. But it is charming and filled with little cafes and shops like this one:

Like 100% of the cities and towns in Europe, Como's got a church at the center. Like 98% of the churches, it's nice, it's peaceful, and it's full of old art depicting people with spears through them or dismembered heads. But, even with my preconceptions of what I'd find in "another church", I happened across this diorama of hell, which I fell in love with. The detail, the imagery, the colors, the whole thing is beautifully well done and all in the space of a large fish tank:

Before we left town and against my better judgement, Diana got me on another boat for a one-hour tour of the lake. Remember how I said that the day was stormy? Yeah, the lake had white caps and there I was on a boat. Again. The reality was that it wasn't too bad and I got some nice pictures of the fresh falling snow on the hill tops (yes, it was cold out too).

From Como, we got back into the car and decided to drive up to Lugano, Switzerland, which is a lake-side town about 30 minutes northwest of Como. Crossing the border between Italy and Switzerland wasn't like crossing from Tijuana into San Diego but it's more involved than crossing between Spain and France for example - you actually have to stop at a checkpoint but they basically wave you through without saying a word.

If you haven't been to Switzerland, it's probably exactly as you imagine it. Expensive. Clean. Well organized. Lovely green mountains topped by snowy peaks:

When we got to Lugano, we parked the car and Diana immediately jumped out and ran over to this bus-stop advertisement with a picture of roasting corn on the cob. See, Diana's a big fan of corn on the cob and eats it whenever she gets the chance.

Towards the center of Lugano, Switzerland, from across Lake Lugano. Not too bad, right?

We hung out for about an hour and then drove around a little bit more before heading back to Italy. We decided to go check out some of the smaller towns outside of Como and stopped at Cernobbio. They were having a classic car rally sponsored by BMW so there were lots of flowers and decorations placed by BMW as well as lots of "well-off" folks walking around. I loved this building-sized map and distance list on the side of this house. The brownish-gold spot at the bottom center of the map is Como and below the map is a list of nearby places along with the distances:

Diana and I went to happy hour and got drinks at a place right next to the lake. It's worth mentioning how nice and cool the folks were at the place we went (sorry, I don't remember the name). They brought us a couple plates of snacks and made a special drink for Diana then charged us almost nothing. Combine that with the beautiful setting and it was a very cool way to end our visit. I think I can understand the appeal of the area. Next time, maybe we'll hang with Clooney!

Selfie at Lake Como, Italy:

Konstanz

I'm convinced that Diana's got friends pretty much everywhere in the world. I have the travel map on the right side of the blog where I keep track of all the places I've been. I really think that I need to have a "Diana Friend Map" to keep track of that. Anyway, this past weekend we boarded the train in Stuttgart for a trip through the hills of southern Germany to Lake Constance to visit more of her friends.

Constance, or Konstanz as it's called in German, is on the northern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee, in German), which joins Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. The town of Constance is divided by a small finger of Lake Constance. This chance feature of it's geography resulted in the middle-ages part of the city center having almost no damage during World War II as the Allied Power wanted to avoid accidentally bombing Switzerland. Crossing a bridge from the German-side of town towards the Swiss-side of town:

The historic core is a big tourist draw and people from all around come during the summer to enjoy the city and lake. I saw people out sailing, windsurfing, and, brrrrrrrrr!!!, swimming! My friend John John's taken me kite surfing a few times back in Oceanside. I think that if I lived near here, that'd be the sport I'd pick up. This view from the top of the Constance cathedral with Germany out to the left and Switzerland out to the right of the lake:

This photo, also from the cathedral, but now facing Switzerland, is of the historic part of Constance. If you look carefully, you'll see a red crane almost to the left side of the picture about 2/3s of the way up. This crane pretty much marks the border and you can follow out towards the right along a line of buildings that tend to be taller than the surrounding buildings. That's the southern German border with Switzerland.

As I mentioned, Constance had almost no damage during the war. There are lots and lots of old buildings with very cool, old architecture. This one, with the dramatic facade, is currently a hotel:

I was amazed at how many buildings were from the 1400 and 1500s. On one narrow residential street, we stuck our heads into a door where there was clearly construction going on. As anyone who's ever done home renovation can tell you, you never know what you'll find until you start tearing the place apart. Well, what if the house you were working on is 600 years old? More power to this guy!

This is one of many streets in Constance with cafes and outdoor seating. What I really like about this photo is how each building has, right above the second story windows, a sign that shows a year, a name, and a cool logo. The one on the blue building is from 1489. I couldn't figure out what they are but I'll continue to ask until I find out and then I'll update the story.

At about 3pm or so, we were down by the waterfront where there were a group of 20-somethings all dressed in traditional, southern-German clothes. Dressing like this has always been most popular in the area around Munich but has gained in popularity throughout southern Germany over the past five or six years, or so I've been told. These guys were making their parents proud by drinking in the street and generally having a good time.

One of the more unusual things that I saw during the trip was this statue of Imperia. Imperia's got quite a rack and is most unusual for her apparent comfort showing off her pubic hair. From what I understand, the statue is based on a book and Imperia represents the "ladies of the night" who spent time in Constance during the Church Council of 1414-1418. She's holding naked versions of the pope and emperor from the time. What a great welcome into the Constance Harbor!

Since we were right on the border with Switzerland, I wanted to take the opportunity to add another country "to the list". I generally only count a country when I've spent more than a few minutes there but what the heck! Number 18, here I come!

We walked the three or four blocks until we came to the closed border check point. As with all of the European Union, there's no fence and no border guards. You just walk/drive right in. It took about ten minutes for us to reach the center of Kreuzlingen, which is the Swiss town right up against Constanz. There really wasn't anything going on there as it was later on Saturday afternoon. It did remind me a little of the border of Tijuana (Mexico) and San Diego (United States) because of the number of Swiss folks that I saw going back into Switzerland with bags of stuff that they had bought in Germany, where I'd image the prices are cheaper.

We only spent about an hour walking around but I did seize the opportunity to open up a Swiss bank account at a local branch of Credit Suisse. Now all I have to do is make some illicit money that requires hiding in the account, but that's just details...

On the way back to Constance, I saw this weird red thing that looks like a giant can opener or something. I had to go right up to it to finally figure out that it's a fire hydrant. Honestly, I was happier for those few moments when I visualized some Swiss folks opening their giant cans of Swiss Miss on the community can opener.

Thanks to our lovely hosts Hubertus, Charo, and their two daughters for putting up with us and for showing us around! By the way, this was taken at a cafe in Constance that specializes in gourmet hamburgers. I very much enjoyed, but very much sweated, my way through an amazing habanero burger. Fortunately I took the photo before!

Can I just mention one more time how awesome it is to have friends in so many places in the world. You better be warned though, if we haven't come stay with you yet, we're probably on our way!