Lago di Como: more Varenna

After a nice night's sleep and a hearty breakfast at our hotel, we spent our first Italian morning touring Varenna, mostly by way of their handy scenic walkway. It leads from "our" part of town near the ferry dock to the village's main square.

Looking lakeward are great views like the photo you see at the top of this post. (Don't worry, I'll give you lots more lake scenery in my next missive.) Toward the shore are luxuriant vines and other landscaping elements, decorating some pretty fancy residences...

The walkway is labelled as the "Greenway dei Patriarchi," not, apparently a nod to Italian machismo, but rather to the wise elderly of Varenna. And we think we were wise elderly visitors ourselves, so it fits, no?

The Greenway extends further up and down the lakeshore than the snippet that we enjoyed walking, and the views are tremendous, as I think you'll agree.

We took in several interesting sights in Varenna's charming square (as well as a mandatory gelato break on our way home).

The major sight is the Chiesa di San Giorgio, a handsome medieval structure...

(thanks to Henry for this picture, which came out better than mine)

...whose rather plain exterior hides some gorgeous frescoes and amazing stonework on its baroque altar.

I guess at some point I will need to count up the number of churches we visited on this trip, but I

know it was a lot.

It's hard to pass up even one of these structures, knowing the treasures that probably are tucked within. And not just visual treasures but interesting tidbits as well. 

For example, since this church is named for St. George, there's this cute window you see on the left. I'd always associated this saint with England, but he's apparently popular in Italy as well, since this isn't the last time we'll see that dragon slain.

And S. Giorgio isn't even the only church here! There's a lovely baroque chapel—Chiesa Santa Maria delle Grazie—right on the square...

...and another, much older church is just a few steps away: Chiesa San Giovanni Battista.  Would you believe eleventh century?!

That's one of the biggest adjustments you have to make over here: re-thinking what "old" means. There have been people living, working, and worshiping around this fabulous lake for a long, long time.

(BTW, I eventually plan to offer a series of posts featuring all the churches we saw and their marvelous art. So if you're as taken with European churches as we are, be sure to stay tuned!)

Another manifestation of the age of the town are the narrow, steep, pre-auto walkways that count as many of Varenna's streets...

Tiny, and oh, so photogenic!

We didn't follow the Greenway too much farther south than the main square, but we did get this nice view from the lobby of the Villa Monastero, a sight we had decided to pass up.

We had already decided to see another villa across the lake instead, and I'll tell you about that fabulous estate after I show you some of the great lake scenery that we were treated to on the ride over.