Day 5: Damp

Today we were bright and early. Even if the weather wasn’t. The forecast said there was a 90% chance of rain. I didn’t like those odds. If you go to Como you must (and I mean must) go up the funicular railway. The terminal was very close to our hotel and so we set off, bought return tickets (good value at less than 10 euros for both of us) and went up the mountain. The views from the top are awesome. I knew this because they had thoughtfully placed some pictures up there that showed the view when you could see it. For us it was nothing but cloud and rain.

So we took a bus along the top to the Faro lighthouse. At one point the bus stopped for us to get out and take pictures of the wonderful view that may, or may not, have been there.  We just sat inside steaming in our waterproofs and watching raindrops race down the outside of the windows. All I needed was a thermos of coffee and some warm cheese sandwiches and I would have been right back to my holidays as a child.

The good news was that we found an inviting little cafe at the top and had a quick drink before bussing back to the railway and down to ground level. The rest of the day centered around places we could go that had an indoors. Like for example Como Cathedral.

This has some lovely stained glass windows and tapestries. They also let you take photographs inside, which is nice. The next stop was the city museum, which was interesting, and then we went along to the Volta Temple, on the shores of the lake.

Allessandro Volta didn’t invent electricity, any more that Newton invented gravity. But he did explain how it worked and did a huge amount of work to make it useful. His work is commemorated in a temple in Como which contains some of his experimental batteries and other equipment.

After a good look round we headed back to our room to freshen up and then out for tea.

Como is a town at the end of a lake surrounded by hills. The weather can change in heartbeat. Just after I took the picture above it rained so much that we were trapped in a bar (a truly terrible experience) by some of the heaviest rain I’ve ever seen. And I’m from England. We managed to make our drinks last a couple of hours before the rain abated and we were able to head home. The only people we saw on the streets were selling umbrellas.