Our last full day……☹️

The weather was foul on waking – torrential rain, although balmy temperatures.

The original plan was to drive to the town of Como and then be left to our own devices for about 5 hours! Given the weather, this had very little appeal, so our very genial driver, Gianni, offered to take a slightly less motorway-heavy route to take in a bit more of Lake Maggiore and then leave Como at 2 p.m. , considerably earlier than originally planned. This found general favour.

So off we set, a relatively small subset of the group, braving the weather.

As it turned out, Como was much drier than the forecast. We only had to deploy the umbrella on a couple of occasions against shortish showers, and shirtsleeves were very much the order of the day.

The journey to Como was uneventful, save for a fire on the motorway just after our coffee stop. Very dramatic.

Looked like a delivery van had caught fire. Fortunately, the driver was fine – just sitting by the side of the road.

Gianni dropped us off about a 15 minute walk from the central Piazza Cavour. We were, in true Frederica fashion, issued with our instructions at least three times – meet back at the Piazza Cavour at 2 p.m.

Como Cathedral is quite famous, so we visited that first, as it was about 300 yards up the road.

Magnificent, but, being a cynical and jaded traveller these days, some of the Spanish cathedrals in Cordoba and Sevilla were even more so. However, a box ticked.

We walked further along to see the Roman walls. These actually were a bit of an anticlimax.

So…. we walked back the way we came towards Lake Como, the objective being to take the funicular railway up to Brunate.

On the way, we saw a couple of interesting cameos.

We reached the funicular railway ticket office after a 10 minute walk along the lakeside.

On payment of a perfectly reasonable 6.60 € each for a return trip, we started up the hill. A young gent gallantly gave up his seat for us. Very much appreciated.

We then had a quick look around the town of Brunate. Dead as a doornail, but at least the church was open.

We headed back down the hill on the funicular. Once again, an Italian couple shoved up and made room for Jean to sit down.

I managed to take some more pictures on the way down.

We then decided to look for the old medieval part of the town behind the Piazza Cavour. On the way, we passed a display of old MG cars. Nostalgia for me as I used to own a British racing green MGB GT.

The old town took some finding.

We stopped for a snack and a glass of wine here, but they were ages serving us, so it was very hurried as we had to be back at the allotted time. Very unfortunate, as the food was excellent. Jean folded the remainder all up in a serviette and we ate it on the coach back to the hotel.

We made it back to Piazza Cavour with two minutes to spare. I noticed a few people glancing at their watches; we seem to have gained a reputation for cutting it fine. Can’t think why….

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing the packing and getting the logistics for tomorrow sorted out. We are on the 8.15 a.m. coach to the airport – reasonably civilised.

Dinner was, once again, convivial, but the quality was mediocre. We haven’t been impressed by the food. Good on quantity, not so much on quality.

Our final “experience” was the sideways lift. This takes you from the hotel lobby to the health club, about half a mile away. Horizontally. It did feel a bit weird, but it was a nice qride.

Home tomorrow. Fingers crossed. I’ll let you know.