Menaggio - Lake Como Sept 18-20

 Menaggio - Lake Como Sept 18-20

Lake Como looking south to the town of L. Como

The ride between Levanto and Menaggio on Lake Como is challenging to do other than by autostrada. I remember my first thoughts in 2011 after getting off the ferry from Morocco that we'd take a leisurely drive off the autostrada and find a place to stay for the night.

After it taking 1/2 hr to exit the Genova terminal and drive a normal road to Rapalla, I realized the best bet in either direction is the A12 autostrada. With speeds of 130 kph and roughly 35 tunnels you could do this route in the rain and not get wet.

So we resigned ourselves to taking the A12 to Genova, the A7 to Milan, and the A9 to Lake Como and then the west side road to Menaggio. Even at that there were road construction delays on both the A7 and A9 which made the 300 km drive a 4 hour ordeal in heavy traffic.

But once you get to Menaggio and see the lake it makes it more worthwhile.

We have stayed at the Hotel Merloni a few times over the years, in '06 on a dark and stormy night, '16 while headed to the Matterhorn, last year for 3 days while celebrating our 50th and now this time. With the food always of such great quality we decided this time to book 1/2 board and the meals have been excellent.

Last year we hiked to Le Croce overlooking the village

Menaggio

and lake and enjoyed the pool. Yesterday we hiked all the way down into Menaggio and back and rewarded ourselves with a great afternoon at the pool again.

Merloni Pool

Enjoying the Lake and the Beauty of Menaggio

Tomorrow we'll be on to Switzerland for a new adventure there as we meet up with Heiko for our last few days in Europe.