Charlie drove us down the very narrow road from Lagio through Urio, Moltrasio, Cernobbio and on to Como, following our electronic navigator’s instructions as interpreted by Allan. It took us 15 minutes to get to Como and at least 15 minutes to find a legal parking space and the funicular. The funicular took us from a park on the lake up to the small village of Brunate. Brunate is the home of the Voltiano Lighthouse built to honor Count Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), a self-taught physicist who invented the battery and after whom the volt was named. He was born and died in Como.
About a 30 minute uphill hike from the end of the funicular Charlie and I found the lighthouse. I couldn’t understand why a lighthouse would be needed on top of a mountain off the shore of a freshwater lake…it was actually built to honor Volta and “is the tower lighting humanity’s path”, not exactly a lighthouse…a tower of light. From the lighthouse we could see some of the Swiss Alps and maybe our villa–we can see the lighthouse from the villa.
Dinner was at La Laconda del cantiere just down the road from the villa. We sat outside with a beautiful view of the lake and had an excellent dinner–vegetable flan with fondue and whitefish appetizers, steak, lamb and local fish entrees and tiramisu and chocolate mousse for dessert.
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