My Journey to Europe; Varenna Italy (on Lake Como)
*(please note; all images on this blog are copyrighted and must have written permission from Chris Brandley Art for any use whatsoever.)
As promised, here is a painting inspired from the Cotswolds from my last blog. (You can also see a video time lapse of this painting by clicking here.)
I have more to show you from London and Windsor England, but I will come back to that on another blog post. Today, I will share the amazing Varenna, Italy (one of the towns on Lake Como.) *BTW, George Clooney lives in Lake Como...trust me, I looked for him but to no avail.)
We flew into Milan, and between the airport and train station, all I saw was incredible architecture with graffiti painted on Every. Single. Building. And not the beautiful, artsy kind. It broke my heart...but I digress. Let's fast forward to Lake Como...1st stop, Varenna. When planning the trip, I wondered if there would really be much color in October in Italy. Let me just say, OH MY GOSH...it was stunning. Not only were there still colorful flowers blooming everywhere, but there was also the orange and red vines, grapes, and purple and red berries growing everywhere. AND, THAT was the actual color of the sky...I am not kidding! This photo was not enhanced in any way!
The weather couldn't have been more perfect; and because of the surrounding mountains the 1st thing I noticed was that there was NO WIND! (Being from Texas, this was a big deal.)
We discovered very quickly that we were going to be getting plenty of exercise with all of the steep hills. I also discovered how out of shape I really am...
(above: the start of my 2 week stair-master exercise program...sidenote: we discovered later that this was the easy climb compared to what was to come in Cinque Terre...more on that in a later blog!)
After a little climbing up some alleyways, we came upon a town square a level up, with a church, cafe's and residential homes.
This cute little pink house inspired my 1st painting in Varenna:
"Through the Grapevine" 12x12 (available...click here to purchase)
Our hike continued and we headed back down to the Lake and discovered some of the most breathtaking scenery I'd ever seen.
The air was crisp, and the aroma was "piney" and sweet.
I sat by the lake for a bit just enjoying the swans, when this happened: (click to see short video clip).
Onward towards town...time to eat!
We chose Cavallino Ristorante Trattoria dei Pescatori.
(it seems that most Italian names of anything are an entire sentence).
The Pesto Pasta was pretty darn good, but the white Moscato was the best wine I've ever tasted. (*disclaimer: I don't drink a lot of wine so I don't have much to compare it with, but it tasted more like sweet, fresh squeezed grapes than wine. That could be dangerous!)
It started to get just slightly chili, and our waiter brought us nice warm blankets.
This was a great ending to a perfect day. Next stop...Menaggio, across the lake!
