This is a first for me: a two-part what-I-did-on-my holidays piece. Our city and lakeside stays were so different I couldn’t fit them comfortably into one post, at least, that’s my excuse
We’d booked a holiday in Italy just a few weeks before Covid knocked the world for six in February 2020, finally making it this year after two flight cancellations gave us the jitters. Not being able to make up are minds which we preferred, we’d picked two hotels a short distance from each other – the first at Oggebbio on Lake Maggiore, the second by the tiny Lake Mergozzo.
We’d not planned much, if anything, for the holiday perhaps because we still hadn’t quite believed it would come off but I’d thought we might spend some of the lake part hiking which is what we did on the first day, walking from our Oggebbio base to the next commune and back, remarking on how much it reminded us of Madeira: palm trees, lush ferns and banana plants in gardens alongside camellias, lilac, wisteria, azaleas and roses. That Madeira comparison also works for the weather as we found the next day. It may be pouring in your neck of the woods but drive over a mountain pass and it’s a different season altogether.
Sadly, not a trick that worked the day we moved on to Casa della Capra in the pretty village of Mergozzo. Being greeted by Margot, the gorgeous, soppy Great Dane, went some way to make up for the weather. This hotel was very different from the more traditional Villa Magherita. We’d chosen it for the food which proved to be excellent but Margot would have swung it for me. Mergozzo’s main claim to fame seemed to be supplying a distinctive pink marble to the builders of Milan’s spectacular cathedral which we marvelled at later in the holiday.
Another rainy day saw us off to the International Museum of Ceramic Design just across Lake Maggiore at Leveno, once a ceramics manufacturing centre. It showcases the work of several important twentieth-century Italian ceramicists. The current exhibition featured Leonor Fini, a multi-talented South American/Italian surrealist painter, designer, illustrator and author. The exhibition included a few of her costumes; so stylish, not least two stunning hats. Sadly, we were the only people there during our two-hour visit.
We managed to fit in a couple of walks before heading to Milan, the highlights of which were wild narcissi in bloom and the neon green, bright-blue headed gecko that shot across our path far too quickly to photograph. It goes by the rather dull name European Green Lizard but if you click here you’ll see that it deserves something much more exotic than that.
Before heading to Milan, we ate our last Mergozzo breakfast in the sunshine on the terrace overlooking the lake just as I’d fantasised over the more than two years since we’d booked the holiday.
And the books? I so wanted to enjoy Jonathan Coe’s Mr Wilder and Me which follows Calista from her first chance meeting with film director Billy Wilder to her interpreting stint with him on the set of Fedora but Coe lost me with an overlong passage written as a film script. Renée Rosen’s entertaining Park Avenue Summer made up for that a little. Told from the perspective of her secretary, it charts Helen Gurley-Brown’s transformation of Cosmopolitan from a staid women’s magazine into a much raunchier publication.
Looks lovely in spite of the changeable weather. Glad you made it at last!
Thank you! I’ve been to Italy often enough to expect rain so was prepared.
Ah, heaven, despite the weather… So glad you finally got to go.
It was, and thank you!
Always enjoy your travel posts. Never been to the lakes but only ever heard great things about them – glad you finally got there!
Thank you! It was my first time but I’d like to go back. My favourite was the tiny Lake Megozzo. Much less touristy.
Looks like you had a lovely time, despite the weather. Margot would have decided me too. She looks so sweet
I did, thanks, and Margot’s gorgeous. So friendly and a complete pushover!
Oh, that looks beautiful, even if it did rain. What a lovely location!!!
It was so beautiful. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Italy when it hasn’t rained!
Lovely, glad you were able to go at last! We had a super holiday by Lake Como a few years ago.
Thank you! It such a lovely part of the world, isn’t it.
I’m all for multiple holiday posys, especially ones about Italian adventures. Looks amazing (especially Margot).
Ah, well there will be another one coming up shortly so that’s good to hear. Margot’s undoubtedly the star of this one!
Nice holiday–that Great Dane IS lovely! My Mom loved Park Ave Summer and I put it on my TBR due to her praise. I suppose I should get to it THIS summer.
Hard not to dognap her! Park Avenue Summer was a great holiday read: easy to pick up and put down, entertaining and absorbing. I hope you enjoy it when you get to it.
Looks absolutely gorgeous Susan! I can’t believe such a stunning gecko has such a dull name. And I’m in love with Margot 😀
Me, too on both counts!
Wonderful scenery, good food and a lovely dog to befriend – the perfect holiday! Glad you finally made it!
Thank you! Didn’t really believe it would happen until we were in the air. We were so lucky.
I always love your holiday posts Susan, looks like you had a lovely time!
Thank you, Cathy. It was well worth the wait.
We just returned from a trip to France in which we spent three weeks in Paris and a week in the country. Your trip to Italy looks fabulous!
That sounds lovely! Hope you enjoyed your travels as much as I did mine.
Looks like even the rain couldn’t spoil it.
No, it didn’t and we were prepared!
You were clever to go in May, rather than July as we did a few years ago (for a conference of my husband’s) — it was so sweltering we couldn’t enjoy the city very much. Our escapes to the cooler Lakes and mountains during that week were very welcome. Hikes, flowers and dogs: a lot like our recent trip to Spain! Alas, I was bitten by a yappy guard dog.
Oh, no – I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope it didn’t ruin your holiday. July must have felt like a furnace. It was certainly a holiday of contrasting weather which justified my overpacking tendency!
Luckily it was just a nip to my calf as he was seeing us off, from the path outside a goat cheese factory. It didn’t break the skin, but left me with a bruise. (He was the exception to the rule, as most of the other dogs we met were lazy older ones who came out to look at the intruders but then retreated to nap in the shade.)
A tough time of year to pack for — we had all weathers as well, from hot and sunny to windy and cold enough for a winter coat.
Glad to hear that. The goat cheese factory sounds interesting. I’m hoping for holiday post.
Pingback: 10 Days in Spain (or at Sea) and What I Read | Bookish Beck