Torino, Tirano, or Trento?

Where am I?

I kept getting mixed up about where we were going after Lake Como because the names of Italian cities can be so similar. For example, consider three cities in the north of Italy. First, there’s Torino (known as Turin) in English. Then there’s Tirano. And don’t forget Trento. Although they’re all in northern Italy, they’re quite different. Torino is a large industrial city in the Piedmont region while Torino is a small city in Lombardy, up near the Swiss border, and Trento is in medium-size city in the Trentino-Alto Adige-Süd Tirol region. No wonder I was confused! 

 

Take a look at the map that shows our route and you’ll see that Tirano was our next destination.

 

Even while we were still on the shores of Lake Como, our lunch in Colico was a clue that we were heading into a very different part of Italy. The starter was bresaola, an air-dried, salted Italian cured beef from the Valtellina valley. The main course, also from the Valtellina valley, was pizzoccheri, made with buckwheat pasta. The dark pasta has a nutty flavor and is usually prepared with potatoes, cabbage, local casera cheese, butter, and garlic. It was hearty and flavorful and nothing like the food I’d otherwise associate with Italy. 

As we drove east towards Tirano, I could see mountains in the distance. Were they the fabled Dolomites? No, Cris told us. These mountains, thickly carpeted in green, were the pre-Alps and they’re made of granite. Later in the trip, we’d be seeing Dolomites, which are made of limestone plus magnesium.

 

The Valtellina valley is a productive agricultural area known for growing apples, nebbiolo grapes, buckwheat, rye, and corn. The apple trees are espalier’d, i.e. planted against a trellis to make it easier to pick the fruit. The nebbiolo grapes, used to make red wine, grow in terraced vineyards and are harvested by hand. And the buckwheat is used for pasta (for aforementioned pizzoccheri) and baked goods. Buckwheat grows quickly, so after it’s harvested, farmers can use the same fields to plant both rye and corn. Rye is used for a donut shaped dark bread. 

 

Since the valley has an east-west orientation, only the north side, which faces south, gets the sun. When we looked out the windows on the left-hand side of the bus, we saw plenty of terraced fields. Cris told us that this side is also where most of the houses and villages are located. 

The south side of the Valtellina, which faces north, gets practically no sun at all. Looking out the windows on the right side of the bus, we saw completely forested hillsides. We also saw several trucks loaded with logs, a reminder that logging and timber is an important industry in the Valtellina.

 

It wasn’t long before we reached the city of Tirano. It’s quite small, with a population of about 8800 and a single traffic light. There’s an old town, where the streets are narrow and vehicular traffic is limited, and a new town. Our bus was too big to drive right up to our hotel, which was in the old town. The driver had to let us off in a nearby square and we walked a block or two to the Hotel Centrale. Our luggage arrived a little later in a little red cart.

After we settled in, Cris led us on an orientation walk around the neighborhood. The hotel is right around the corner from the medieval Church of San Martino, dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, the patron saint of Tirano. The building was renovated in the 17^th century and interior was decorated in the ornate Baroque style that was popular at the time. The church also contains a 19^th century pipe organ and some modern stained glass windows. Its Romanesque bell tower dates back to the 15^th century.  

Tirano was a big contrast to the earlier destinations on the trip. It didn’t have an urban feel at all. It was compact, neat, and clean. And most importantly, it wasn’t jam-packed with tourists. I immediately loved it. 

 

You may recall from my previous post that the Adda River flows into and out of Lake Como. This river flows right through Tirano on its way down from the Italian Alps. It separates the old town from the new town. 

 

Tirano is located a little over a mile from the border with Switzerland. Cris mentioned that many people who live here commute to Switzerland to work since salaries in Switzerland are about three times higher than they are in Italy. On the other hand, people who live in Switzerland come here to go to restaurants because they’re less expensive. 

 

On our first evening in Tirano, I went to dinner at the Antica Osteria dell’Angelo, a restaurant Cris recommended during our walk. I decided to try a traditional specialty of the Valtellina. On the menu, which was written in Italian and German, it was called Tzigoiner (Zigeuner). Although I’m not normally a meat eater, I was craving protein after all the pasta I’d been eating. In the simplest terms, Tzigoiner is meat on a stick. Actually, it’s very thin slices of beef sirloin that are rolled around a thick wooden stick which is then simply seasoned and grilled. To eat it, you just pick up both ends of the stick and bite off the meat. To balance out the meal, I added an order of grilled vegetables - eggplant, peppers, zucchini, and something I didn’t quite recognize. The meat was very tasty and the combination made for a perfect dinner. The walk back to the hotel, on the car-free street, took just a minute or two. I was impressed by how quiet it was in the old town after dark.  

 

Breakfast the next morning was a quite a bit simpler than the lavish buffet at our hotel on Lake Como but it was equally satisfying. In fact, as soon as I walked out of my room, I was drawn to the breakfast room by the tempting buttery aroma that filled the hallway and staircase. Along with the eggs, cheeses, yogurt, and fruit, there was speck (northern Italy’s answer to prosciutto), heartier breads, and plenty of butter rather than olive oil. Yes, there were cakes, and strudels, and croissants, and pastries, which I tried to ignore. Sometimes, I was successful; other times, I wasn’t. 

Our schedule allowed for early morning walks around the old town. Although the architecture was different, something about Tirano reminded me of the village where I lived in France in the 1980s. Maybe it was the ringing of the church bells every hour and half hour. (Our house in France was directly across from the bell tower.) 

Over the next couple of days, I wandered deeper into the old town and came across several 16^th and 17^th c palazzos (homes of wealthy families). 

 

The main street of Tirano’s new town was lined with stores, cafés, and office buildings. It’s where I found the Lollipop Gelateria and tried a new flavor – amarena. Amarena cherries (sour cherries preserved in a rich sweet syrup) are swirled into a base of crema or vanilla gelato. The result is decadently delicious.

 

There’s also a church worth visiting in the new town. The Santuario della Madonna di Tirano (Basilica of the Madonna) is a Rococo church from 1547. According to some research I did, it’s built on the exact spot where a local man claimed that the Virgin Mary appeared to him in 1504. From the outside, the church looks fairly plain, but the interior is quite ornate, part of the Roman Catholic Church’s attempt to stop the spread of Protestantism. 

 

Our Day in the Life adventure took place on an overcast and occasionally drizzly day but the weather didn’t interfere with our enjoyment. Even in the city, clouds were hanging like wisps of smoke over the mountains. We drove about half an hour to reach Castel dell’Acqua. The village of 20-40 dwellings (for about 600 people) is one of the few settlements on the dark side of the valley. It’s located at an elevation of 2500 feet. During the two darkest months of winter, this side of the valley gets no sunlight at all. We could see that the mountains were covered with fresh snow from last night’s rain. 

When we got near the farm and saw the farmer, Gabriele, waving to us, we had to leave our bus behind and walk up a steep road lined with hazelnut and chestnut trees. It turns out that goats like to eat the leaves of the hazelnut trees. 

the view from the farm into the valley

The farm has been in the possession of Gabriele's family since the late 1800s. It was his great-grandfather who bought the land. At the time, there was only a house and a stable on the property, and they worked as subsistence farmers. Today, there’s a new house and the farm is home to three generations of Gabriele’s family – plus 80 goats. 

 

The goats are a local breed called Chamois of the Alps. There are currently 70 adult females who are producing milk, 3 adult males, and 17 female babies. Every day, when the weather permits, the goats are taken outside to graze in the pasture. Actually, Gabriele added, they are taken to a different pasture every day. At night, they sleep inside the barn. If you’re wondering how goats spend their time, this is what I learned: They eat about 8 hours a day, ruminate 8 hours a day, and sleep 8 hours a day.  

 

The goats were in the barn when we arrived so we went inside to meet them. The smell was pretty strong but the baby goats were adorable. The females go into heat every August, and the babies are born about five months later. 

The goats have to be milked twice a day, at 5:30am and 6pm. Gabriele uses a machine that milks 12 goats at a time. It only takes 90 minutes to complete the milking of all 70 animals, which seems quite efficient. When asked about how much milk a goat produces per day, Gabriele said about 2.5 liters, which is less than the amount of milk produced by goats on industrial farms.

The milk is made into cheese right here on the farm which they sell to individuals, restaurants, and upscale markets. After visiting the goats, it was time to go into the house where Gabriele’s father, Danilo, gave us a lesson in cheesemaking. He told us that the first cheese was made from goat milk in Mesopotamia 10,000 years ago. 

I learned that goat milk differs from cow milk in that it contains less protein. The percentage of fat, however, is the same (five percent). The molecular structure of goat milk makes it easier for many people to digest. Until 2023, the family used raw milk for all of the cheese they made. Now they use pasteurized milk for the fresh cheese and raw milk only for cheese that will be aged. Danilo stressed that pasteurization is not the same process as sterilization. Pasteurization heats milk to 167° F for 20 seconds to kill the bad bacteria. The good bacteria survive and give the cheese its flavor. Sterilization, on the other hand, heats milk to a higher temperature and kills all the bacteria, both bad and good. 

 

We watched Danilo demonstrate making a fresh primo salé cheese from milk produced on the farm. He started by heating the milk. When the temperature reached 74-75 degrees, he added salt. At 94-95 degrees, he added rennet (a vegetable rennet that comes from the thistle plant). The rennet is an enzyme that eats protein. It coagulates the milk in half an hour, giving it a pudding-like consistency. The liquid that remains after coagulation is called whey and it’s used to make ricotta cheese. From 100 kilograms of milk, you’ll end up with 20 kilograms of cheese and 80 kilograms of whey (which will make 8 kilograms of ricotta). The cheese will have a fat content of about 3 percent. 

 

Under Danilo’s supervision, each of us went through the process of making fresh cheese. Afterwards, we did a tasting of five different cheeses produced on the farm. They included a caprino, a Taleggio, and a scimudin. I liked all of them, especially with a thick slice of dark rye bread and a glass of red wine made from Nebbiolo grapes.

The bread and cheese served as the starter for our lunch. For a main course, Danilo brought out bowls of casereccepasta with vegetables. (Caserecce is a short scroll-shaped pasta twisted into an S-shape with curled edges.) For extra flavor, we grated some one-year old goat cheese on top. The simple dish was very tasty.

For dessert, he served a homemade goat cheesecake with a buckwheat crust and caramel topping.

 

Here are a couple of photos taken just before we left the farm. More clouds had rolled in.

My only OAT trip where men outnumbered women

 

The main square in the old town was the perfect place to enjoy an aperitivo before dinner. Late one afternoon, Marilynn and I sat at an outdoor table, ordered Aperol spritzes, and munched on taralli, those little ring-shaped crackers that are so light and crispy. 

Afterwards, we walked to a restaurant called Parravicini where we had an excellent dinner. I was delighted to see that the round bread had a hole in the center. It was traditionally made in this shape so that the baker could stack the breads on a wooden pole. We both ordered the lasagneta - a local version of lasagna that was a layering of crepes, spinach, sausage, and béchamel sauce. It sat on a puddle of smoked provola cheese sauce. There wasn’t a tomato in sight. It was sinfully rich and delicious. 

 

We also enjoyed a home-hosted dinner during our stay in Tirano. Our host family lived just a short distance from our hotel in the old part of the city. In fact, we were able to walk to their home in about three minutes. This is what the neighborhood looked like. 

I wish I could remember the names of the family members – the mom, the dad, their 7-year old daughter, and 5-year old son (plus a golden retriever). The parents spoke enough English for us to have a lively conversation. She told us her family had lived in Tirano for several generations while his family came from a small village outside of town. 

It was a casual dinner with a first course of small shell-shaped pasta with pesto, and then an array of cold dishes, including bruschetta, Caprese salad, green salad, various cheeses and bread, and wine made from the grapes they grow in their small vineyard. It was a delightful evening and when we walked back through the darkened cobblestone streets, the deep quiet and the closeness of the old stone buildings transported me back in time.  

 

I’m already feeling nostalgic about Tirano. But there's even more to tell. While we staying in Tirano, we took an exciting train ride across the border into Switzerland. I think that deserves a post of its own, so I’ll end here.  

Lake Como and the Attack of the Moscherini

After five delightful days in Italy’s Liguria region, it was time to move on to the Lombardy region for the beginning of the OAT Northern Italy base trip. (For reference, here’s another look at the map of Italy’s regions.) 

 

Lombardy is often referred to as the gateway between northern Europe and the Mediterranean. Its name comes from the Lombards, a Germanic tribe that controlled the area after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Lombardy was previously occupied by the Etruscans and Celtic Gallic tribes before Roman conquest in 3^rd century BCE. 

 

Lombard rule ended in 774 CE when they were defeated by the Franks under Charlemagne, who annexed the territory. By the 11^th century, several wealthy autonomous city states emerged. 

 

During the 14^th and 15^th centuries, the region was a center of Renaissance culture under the rulers of Milan and Mantua. Spanish monarchs took control of the Lombardy in the early 16^th century and Spanish rule lasted about 200 years. This was followed by a period of Austrian rule which ended when Napoleon conquered the region in 1796 and made Milan the capital of his Kingdom of Italy. 

 

After Napoleon’s defeat, the region was returned to Austrian control as part of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. It was annexed into the Kingdom of Italy in 1859. Following the unification of Italy in 1861, Lombardy, especially Milan, became an important industrial and financial center. Today it is Italy’s most populous and productive region. About 10 million people (a sixth of Italy’s total population) make their home in Lombardy, primarily in and around the city of Milan. 

 

Once we left Monterosso and the Cinque Terre, we traveled up the coast as far as Genoa where we picked up the Autostrada going north. As we headed inland, the landscape flattened and changed. Cypress and poplar trees replaced the umbrella pines of the Italian Riviera. Bypassing Milan, Lombardy’s capital, we continued north into Italy’s famous lake district. 

 

Our destination was Lake Como, the largest lake in Italy and one of the largest and deepest in all of Europe. As you can see from the map, Lake Como is shaped like an upside down “Y.” The northern part of the lake extends close to the border with Switzerland. In fact, Julius Caesar established a settlement on the site of the present-day town of Como because it gave the Romans easy access to Switzerland through a nearby mountain pass. Soon afterwards, wealthy Romans started to build holiday villas around the lake. Today, almost a million people live in the towns surrounding Lake Como. 

 

We didn’t stay in any of the most popular tourist towns (Como, Bellagio, Varenna, etc.) but rather in a much quieter small town called Malgrate which is adjacent to the larger (population 48,000) town of Lecco, near the tip of the southeastern branch of the lake. This is where the Adda River, which originates in the Alps and flows into Lake Como, flows out of the lake on its journey south to meet the Po River. We didn’t see any celebrities but we were able to observe the everyday lives of ordinary people, primarily Italians.

 

From the Hotel Griso, our base for three days and nights, we had a wonderful view of the lake and the surrounding mountains. My room had a spacious balcony, allowing me to gaze out at the calm waters of the lake and the distinctive sawtooth-shaped Mount Resegone to the northeast. The height of the mountain is 1875 meters (6152 feet). 

Once we arrived at the hotel, I didn’t stay inside for long. I crossed the street to the lungolago, Italian for walkway along the lake. Please take a moment to say lungolago out loud. Isn’t it fun? Lungolago instantly became my new favorite word in Italian.   

 

I had plenty of company as I strolled along as far as the bridge that crosses over to Lecco. I even saw some people stretched out on the rocks by the water, taking in the sun. I wasn’t surprised by the crowds since this was the final day of a holiday weekend. The previous day, April 25, is celebrated in Italy as Liberation Day to commemorate when the country was finally freed from Nazi occupation in 1945. Despite the people around me, I found that gazing out at the lake and the mountains brought an immediate sense of serenity.

 

I had dinner with two of my fellow travelers at a popular lakeside restaurant, Da Giovannino, that our new tour leader, Cris, had recommended. The sun was low in the sky when we were seated at a table overlooking the lake. The food was as impressive as the setting. I recognized the little taralli biscuits that were served as we sipped crisp white wine. I had tasted them for the first time in Genoa. My main course was luscious homemade ravioli with veal, artichokes and black truffles. By the time we finished our meal, the sun had set and the lights of Lecco were reflected in the lake. 

 

Next morning’s lavish breakfast buffet was surpassed only by the incredible view from the hotel restaurant windows. 

After breakfast, we walked with Cris along the lungolago and crossed the bridge to downtown Lecco where we boarded a small boat for a short ride before exploring the town on foot. There was a mass going on in the Basilica of San Nicolò, dedicated to Lecco’s patron saint.  The church’s neo-Gothic bell tower was built in 1906.  

 

The center of Lecco was bustling, with several outdoor markets taking place. After grabbing a quick bite to eat at one of them, I joined a few other members of our group heading to the train station. It was just a short ride, in a jam-packed train car, to Varenna, another town on the Lecco branch of Lake Como. I really wanted to love Varenna. I’d seen photos showing Varenna’s colorful lakeside houses and elegant gardens. Unfortunately, the town was so crowded (and the weather so hot) that I found it impossible to enjoy the beautiful surroundings. After a short time, I gave up and took the train, which was even more crowded than earlier, back to Lecco. I consoled myself with a cone of gelato on my way back to the hotel. (My Italian language skills had progressed to the point where I could say vorrei un cono con due gusti, pistacchio e nocciola.)

 

In the hotel room, I tried to turn on the air conditioning but discovered that it was too early in the season for the system to work. I hadn’t realized that the national government and the individual municipalities set the rules for when central heating and air conditioning can be turned on. I left the door to the balcony open in an attempt to cool off the room 

 

At our group dinner at the hotel restaurant that evening, I tried a Milanese egg, which was described on the menu as an egg that is soft-boiled egg, then coated in breadcrumbs and fried. It was served with a Parmigiano cream and spinach. Unusual, but very tasty! The garganelli pasta with lake fish ragù was excellent, as was the delicious cheesecake. I definitely prefer the Italian cheesecake, which is much lighter than the American version. 

Since Lake Como is just a short distance north of Milan (you can get there by train from Lecco in only 40 minutes), we were able to spend part of a day there. Lombardy’s capital city is located in a flat area of the Po valley. It was founded by a Celtic tribe of shepherds and farmers who traveled from today’s Germany south over the Alps around 600 BCE. The town was taken over by the Romans about 400 years later. 

 

For over 2000 years, Milan has been an important center of commerce. Today, it is Italy’s wealthiest and second largest city. Like many people, I associate Milan with the fashion industry. I learned that other important industries are design (especially furniture design), finance, banking, insurance, television, and radio. 

 

I was surprised to learn that Milan’s only river is underground. For centuries, the people who inhabited Milan had to dig wells to access water. In the 12^th century they developed a canal system for irrigation and to transport building materials. Later, Leonardo da Vinci made important improvements to the canal system, which is still in use today. Cris reminded us that Leonardo spent 20 years in Milan and that his primary interest at the time was engineering, not painting. 

 

Our first stop in Milan was at the imposing Sforza Castle. The castle complex was built in the 15^th century by the Duke of Milan (a member of the Sforza family) on top of 14^th century fortifications built by the Visconti family. In addition to serving as the home of the Dukes of Milan, the castle was used for military training. Renovations and additions were made to the castle in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. Cris pointed out that the castle has both round and square towers. The earlier towers are square shaped. Leonardo da Vinci, who spent 20 years living in Milan, introduced the idea of round towers, which were easier to defend and harder to attack. 

 

The complex is located next to Milan’s largest public park.

 

Today, the castle complex contains an Egyptian museum, a museum of ancient art, and a museum that features one of Michelangelo‘s sculptures. Unfortunately, the museums were closed on the day of our visit. 

 

It was such a hot day that we sought out the shade offered by the castle’s mulberry arbor. It was a reminder that Milan, as well as the area around Lake Como, was an important center of silk production beginning in the 15^th century. 

 

With a local guide, we toured Milan’s historic center. She explained that it was easy to walk around because there is very little parking in the area so very few people drive into the city. Almost everyone uses public transportation (there’s a subway system) or rides a bike. 

 

Our guide led us through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the most crowded place in city. Built in the second half of the 1800s, following Italy’s unification, the Galleria was the world’s first department store. The original Prada shop is located in the Galleria, along with numerous other high-end stores, bars, cafés, and restaurants. 

walking from the Duomo to the Galleria

inside the Galleria

The Galleria connects La Scala, Milan’s opera house, and the Duomo, Milan’s Gothic cathedral. La Scala was commissioned by Maria Teresa, the Habsburg Empress of Vienna, and was built in the neo-classical style. It opened in 1778.

Milan’s Duomo is one of the largest churches in the world. With a seating capacity of 10,000, the cathedral covers an entire city block. It’s impressive not only for its size but for its elaborately decorated white marble façade, which is adorned with 3200 statues and 135 spires, and for its equally lavish interior filled with stained glass windows, ornately patterned marble floors, two enormous organs, and more statues. The “small” statue of the Madonna at the top of the cathedral’s dome is actually 12 feet high. Completely covered in gold leaf, she’s affectionately referred to as the “Madonnina,” i.e. Little Madonna. And here’s a very interesting fact – it’s the only church with a stone roof. There are no wooden beams in the structure. The roof is held up by 52 pillars. 

After visiting the Duomo, several of us made our way to a nearby trattoria, Al Cantinone, for a lunch of Milanese specialties: cotoletto di vitello milanese and saffron risotto. Given the portion size, I spent the bus ride back to our hotel in a food coma.

Fortunately, I recovered in time to enjoy our group’s pizza dinner at a restaurant on the lungolago in Malgrate. Once again, our dessert was that light and creamy Italian ricotta-based cheesecake. 

 

On our final morning on Lake Como, we drove north along the eastern shore of the lake to the Abbey of Piona. It’s a religious complex in an isolated setting not far from the town of Colico, about 25 miles north of Lecco. Founded by Cluniac monks in the 12^th century, the complex is now in the possession of the Cistercian order. Behind the 12^thcentury church are the ruins of an apse with some very old frescoes dating back to an earlier 7^th century church. The bell tower, however, is more recent. It was built in the 18^th century. 

For the first time in several days we had no sunshine. The gray clouds and misty light created a sense of otherworldliness.

Nearby Colico has a well-preserved First World War fort, Forte Nord Montecchio. Located near Italy’s northern border, it was built for defensive purposes. On a hike up to the fort, we saw deer and heard cuckoos calling out their distinctive cry in the woods.

Nowadays, the fort serves as a tourist attraction because of its views over Lake Como and the scenic Alpine valleys of Valtellina and Valchiavenna. The cannons weren’t used until 1945, when Italy was fighting to liberate itself from the fascists and Mussolini. We had a guided tour of the fort by a local expert. I was fascinated by the Fascist-era messages painted throughout the complex. One cautions, “Be wary of everything. Trust no one.” 

 

Before I end this post, I need to tell you about The Attack of the Moscherini. 

 

It occurred on the second evening in our lovely hotel on the shores of Lake Como. We’d had been a late dinner after a tiring but enjoyable day. I was tired and eager to get some restorative sleep. Hoping to get some fresh air to cool off the room when the outside temperature dropped, I had left the door to my balcony open when I went to dinner. When I got back from dinner, I spent a little while reading to relax. As I was about to get into bed, I noticed tiny black spots scattered all over the white bed linens. When I tried to brush them off, they turned into dirty smudges. What could that be? 

 

And then I noticed black spots clustered on the wall near the light fixture – and some of them were moving! Oh, no, I thought. They’re flies – tiny flies, like fruit flies. And when I looked up to the ceiling, I could see a whole swarm of them. As soon as I conquered my sense of nausea, I called down to reception. “Help!” I exclaimed in semi-panic mode. “There are flies all over my room. They’re falling on my bed. I can’t sleep here!” (I took photos to document the infestation but I don't want to traumatize you by including them here.)

 

The calm response from the man at the front desk was “We’ll send up the maintenance man.” A few minutes later, a man appeared at my door with a bottle of insect spray. He took one look at the condition of the room and said, “I’ll be back.”

 

He soon reappeared, this time with a ladder and an industrial vacuum cleaner. After shutting the door to the balcony, he started moving all the furniture away from the walls. He then set up his ladder so he could reach the areas of the walls and ceiling where the flies were congregating. After several minutes, he was still at work and my mind was racing – what if the flies come back while I’m sleeping? They’ll fall on my face! 

 

So I called back down to the front desk to see if they could find another room for me. This time, the person on duty couldn’t hide his exasperation. “They’re just moscherini (gnats). They don’t bite. Of course you have them in your room,” he said. “We are on the lake. You had the lights on and the door to the outside open after dark.” (In other words, the flying creatures are harmless, it was entirely my fault, and I should stop making such a fuss.)

 

After clearing off the ceiling and walls, the maintenance man went around the room vacuuming up all the dead flies that had fallen on the floor and the furniture. He paid special attention to the folds of the long drapes covering the window and balcony door. And since the bed was hopelessly littered with fly corpses, he stripped off the linens and remade the bed with clean sheets. Finally, he put the furniture back in place before he departed. 

 

A full hour had passed since I’d made the discovery of the flies and it took a while before I calmed down enough to fall asleep. The following night, I made sure to keep the balcony door closed all evening until I was ready to turn off the lights. Once the room was pitch dark, I turned on my flashlight for a few seconds just so I could find my way to the balcony door and open it to let in some cool air. I’m happy to report that I spent a fly-free night. 

 

Aside from that unexpected drama, I enjoyed my time at Lake Como.