Como (the city) - Why all the hype?

As we were looking through our travel books about what to see in Como (the largest city on the lake), this is what we read in one:

• "Como...is part elegant resort, part industrial town."  Apparently we missed the elegant part and maybe even the resort part.  Como felt more like any other large European city.  Compared to Menaggio, Bellagio, and Varenna, it was newer, bigger, less charming, more spread out, and because it's at the bottom of the lake, a lot of it isn't hemmed in by mountains and water like the other three.  As you glimpsed into the hills that are there on both sides of the main part of town, you could see the "vintage" Italian influence most of the time, but then there would be a huge (ugly) concrete apartment complex or something.  It also had it's industrial parts as well.  A lot of the downtown area that we saw was full of store fronts and businesses that were ho-hum comparatively.  We were disappointed within minutes of getting off the boat.
• "Parks and bustling cafes line its lake-front promenades, all a stone's throw from the splendid 15th-century Renaissance-Gothic Duomo."  We saw one park that appeared to be closed to the public and some cafes (yes, they were pretty busy).  The Duomo was splendid---only one problem---the plaza in front of it isn't the biggest and because we were there on a Saturday, it was full of market stalls selling art and such.  Because it was spring, it was also full of outdoor dining tables, umbrellas, and chairs for the various restaurants across from the Duomo.  End result---inability to get good photos because we were too close to this ginormous edifice.  (Sidenote:  I just checked to see if ginormous was really a word---indeed it is, officially included in the 2007 editions of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary).  Here's what we did get:



Front facade minus most of the front-door level---DJ couldn't get back far enough to get the whole vertical shot  (yes, I do share the camera at times) .



The backside of the Duomo - though the plaza is large and was mostly empty, I had to cross the street and lean up against a fence next to the train tracks to get this picture.  A shot of the top follows:



This beautiful building (we think it was used for theater or opera) was located on the plaza at the back side of the Duomo.  DJ's there in the middle!



Look at the beautiful detail.



• "Other fragments of old Como include San Fedele (once the town's cathedral), at the heart of the medieval quarter, and the Porta Vittoria, the late 12th-centruy city gate."  Maybe that's why we didn't see much that we thought was impressive because we never found the medieval quarter nor the city gate (and didn't see signs nor a tourist information booth to give directions to such).  We didn't bring our travel books with either, but neither gave directions to such things.  After a two-hour boat ride to get to Como and two-full days of traveling and exploring already, maybe we just weren't energetic enough to explore, dig, and ask questions.
• "Brave the industrial quarter of Como to see Sant' Abbondio, a beautiful 11-th century church..."  BRAVE the industrial quarter....no thanks.  See, I think we were just not very driven or inquisitive.
• "...and leave enough time to ride the funicular to hilltop Brunate for views of the lake."  We had been told by one of DJ's co-workers, Italian native, Marco, to take this ride.  We were planning on it.  For those of you that aren't familiar with a funicular, it's a cross between a gondola ride and a train ride.  Small gondola-like compartments ride up a very vertical track on the side of a mountain to reach a destination on the top.  We had been on one in Budapest in 2000 and had been on one last year in Interlaken (the photo at the top of our blog was taken at the top of a mountain after our funicular ride).  Anyway, we thought this would be really cool, but there was the HAZE.  We just weren't in the frame of mind to spend the time or money to ride to the top and not have good views!  Aren't we party poopers?

In our travels we did come upon another plaza which had this statue of Volta, Como's favorite son.  Now for another history lesson, Volta is the inventor of the battery!  Maybe you all knew that---not me.

Other things seen in our travels were the city's clock tower located right next to the Duomo:

...and look at this, a restaurant named after me (teeheehee):

I took other pictures of all my favorite things, but I won't bore you or posterity with those again this time.  We enjoyed lunch at an outdoor cafe, shopped at the market, sat at the lake side, and headed back to Menaggio earlier than expected on a Rapido boat which cut the travel time in half.  We even passed by the Villa Carlotta (a gorgeous villa in Tremezzo) for a second time and didn't stop (DJ was villa-ed out!).  You could actually see the house and a lot of the gardens from the lake.  I would definitely recommend a visit there.  Dinner again by our favorite French chef at the hotel, and we went to bed knowing that we would never forget our time on Lake Como---haze included!