Bellagio

We've spent the last two days exploring Lago di Como in the area surrounding Lenno.  Our apartment is very close to the place where they filmed the "recovery" scene in Casino Royale.

For those that don't remember, he was recovering from being shot at, attacked by a man with a machete, falling down several flights of stairs, being poisoned and his heart consequently stopping and needing to be restarting by electrocution, involved in a serious high-speed 9-roll car crash, and finally being cruelly tortured.

Go on, go watch Casino Royale and see if you can place the above scene.

This is a pretty good place to recover, but nowhere near Montenegro, or even the Czech Republic where it was shot, so it's interesting that they brought him all the way here.  Hollywood geography is fantastic, you can just do whatever you want.  After leaving here they're suddenly on a yacht arriving in Venezia.  However,  you'd have to leave from Venezia to get out into the Adriatic anyway,  unless they sailed around the whole of Italy, which i'd imagine would take some time.

Anyway, Hollywood fantasy aside, the Villa Balbianello, where Jimmy Bond recovered, is rather splendid and it's gardens immaculate.  In the afternoon yesterday we took the tiny cable-car (funivia in Italian) to Pigra and got an elevated view of the lake.

Today we were off to Bellagio, which is apparently the number one destination to visit in the whole of the lakes area.  According to Shelley it's not only the best in Lombardy, but also the best in the world.  Don't get me wrong, it was a cute place alright, but perhaps Shelley needed to get out more?

On a bench in Bellagio.  Was this description really necessary?

The lakes are certainly relaxing and there's plenty to see.  i'm getting intense ski-withdrawal though, and keep thinking, when i see these perfectly landscaped gardens, about how i would ski them if they were covered in snow.

Tomorrow we're going to look at an Italian market in Argegno and then wander round Mennaggio in the afternoon.