Trains, Taxis & Ferries ... Our Day's Journey to Argegno

"One of the great joys of traveling through Italy is

discovering firsthand that it is, indeed, a dream destination."

Debra Levinson

And travel through Italy today we DID ... over 300 miles from Chiarentana in Tuscany to the little 

town of Argegno on the shores of Lake Como.  The journey began at 10 am when we left Sassaia in our rental cars, driving to Chiusi and turning the cars in at Aesse Rental by the train station.  Next, we 

took a train to Florence ... another train to Milan ... and a final train to Como, where we hopped into a LARGE taxi (that held all seven of us - Brenda & Jerry, Jim & Palmer, Margie, Amy & I + our luggage).  The taxi took us to Como's ferry landing where we rolled our bags to a pretty outdoor restaurant for refreshing Spritzes.  

We walked across the street and caught the 5 pm ferry headed for Argegno, excited to be on the last leg of our journey!  Unfortunately, we were also rather exhausted and mis-read the ferry schedule, thinking that Argegno was the last stop.  When we heard the announcement "ARGEGNO" made over the ferry's speaker system, we didn't rush to get up, thinking that with all our suitcases, we'd wait to be among the last passengers off the boat.  However, we were soon startled to realize that the ferry wasn't stopping ... and seemed to be rapidly picking up speed and heading to the other side of the 

lake!!!   Oh, no!  We'd missed our stop!

After much misunderstood and muddled English/Italian conversation with the crew, we understood 

that we should disembark at the NEXT stop (Lezzeno) where another ferry would come along in 10 minutes to take us back across the lake to Argegno. We could just hear everyone on board thinking to themselves ... "Oh, those CRAZY Americans with all their LUGGAGE!"

Happy to report that another ferry DID come along in 10 minutes (a "party" ferry, filled with Brits and Australians drinking gin and tonics!) and it delivered us safely to the ferry landing at Argegno - where we were FIRST to disembark.  (We later learned that the ferry that picked us up was the historic paddle wheeler, "Concordia," built in 1926!)

Once in Argegno, we needed to find our rental apartment,  Jerry was terrific at scoping out the town and the best direction for us to head with our rolling bags.  He also successfully figured out how to remove the apartment keys from the lock box, open the two gates, find the elevator and get us to the correct floor and, at last, into our home for the next week. Whew!  We made it!

The apartment, called Le Vele (The Sails), is just beautiful.  We found it on VRBO but actually rented it through Happy Holiday Homes in Lugano ... their staff  has been very helpful and responsive. 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, beautifully furnished and decorated, with a very well-designed kitchen, spectacular long terrace, overlooking the beautiful lake and equipped with wonderful remote-controlled sunshades.  

We were all too tired to even think about going out to dinner, but Amy surprised us by making a  delicious pasta which we all thoroughly enjoyed around the long, wooden dining table, lit with pretty candle lanterns.

Exhausted, but delighted to be here, we all fell into bed and to sound, sound sleep.  I left my window open and could hear the boats outside gently lapping against their moorings.  Peaceful, tranquil ... that's how Lake Como has been described ... a dream destination for sure.