Barry had some committee meetings today and he and Brenda had a welcome dinner this evening so L.J. and I were on our own today.

We started the day on the ferry to Varenna, by way of Bellagio. We had to get off the ferry in Bellagio and then transfer to a different ferry to get to Varenna. Varenna was founded by local fishermen in AD 769. Geography lesson for today:

The ferry system is great and there are lots of options all over the lake, high speed, small area ferries and more. We bought a full day pass so that we could get to Como for our evening cooking class.

Varenna was just beautiful, it has a beautiful walk right along the water called the Walk of Lovers. There are alleys full of steps along with shops, restaurants and places to stop and enjoy the scenery. My favorite were the pillows on the stairs, later in the day we saw a group resting there and enjoying conversation.

We found this gentleman playing along the walk.

After a nice walk around the waterfront path, we found Visteria, a restaurant at the hotel Royal Victoria. The views were absolutely stunning.

The menu for lunch:

It was delicious – from start almost to finish! We had the Sunset and Rossini, Insalata caprese to share and each had the Ravioli Cacio e Pepe, the cheesecake and the Tiramisu. The cheesecake was the only disappointment, it was in the glass and not quite a cheesecake taste and the topping was extremely sweet.

So after lunch, we made our way back to the ferry to go to Como. This is where things got interesting and a little stressful. As I shared earlier, we bought all day passes for the ferry, what we didn’t realize was if we wanted to use the high speed ferry, we needed to pay an additional upcharge and right when we realized that, they announced that the high speed ferry was full, no more seats available. Well, we were supposed to be at Anna’s at 5 pm for our cooking lesson in Como. The next available ferry wouldn’t get us to Como until 6:00 pm and we would miss the class. We tried reaching out to Viator and had not heard back. We walked to the train station to see if there might be an option, there was not. We inquired about a taxi but none were available (tomorrow we would find out more about why that was).

Finally, L.J. was able to get in touch directly with Anna, our host, and she said it would be fine. She was so kind. We were anxious about getting there as soon as possible so we were happy when it arrived. Back on the ferry, we met some of Barry’s friends (without Barry and Brenda).

Once in Como, we had a decent walk (mostly uphill) to get to Anna’s apartment. She lived in a multi-story building with an old elevator, the kind that has the cage and you pull the doors open and can see out as you go up. Anna was ready for us with amazing appetizers. We chatted together and enjoyed our first course. Her views of the lake were beautiful and she had an amazing garden and back yard area that she shared with her neighbors in the building.

Once we sufficiently enjoyed our appetizers, we started with our pasta making. This pasta was different from the pasta we made in Florence. We used egg instead of water and then the dough had to rest for an hour before we could work with it.

While the pasta dough was resting, we started working on the Tiramisu. This included whipping egg whites, mixing egg yolks and sugar, mixing the egg yolks with the mascarpone and then folding it all together, topped with a bit of Brandy. Then we dipped the ladyfingers quickly in the coffee (I was expecting them to soak a bit), layered it in the dishes and topped with coffee and the other with cocoa powder. It actually was a quicker dessert to make than I expected.

Back to work… time for sauce for the pasta and rolling out our pasta. We started with some garlic and tomatoes in a skillet and then began to work on the pasta. We were doing two different types, tagliatelle and ravioli. First L.J. worked on rolling out the dough for the tagliatelle. Once it was rolled out, it was rolled up and then we cut them into rolled strips which would then be cooked on the stovetop.

Next, we worked on the spinach and cheese ravioli, they were pretty cute!

We finished up the pasta sauce and then she sent us back to the dining room.

The final result:

Here is our wonderful Chef and host, Anna. Anna is a high school teacher and college professor, teaching the history of food. She also used to do large scale photography of silk prints. She volunteers for a group that feeds refugees, right now hundreds of them from the Ukraine, the women and children that have been able to safely escape. The next day, she was going to help feed a group of 200.

Meanwhile, back in Moltrasio Monday evening, some photos from Barry and Brenda’s welcome dinner.

Anna called a taxi for us, it was later than originally planned due to our late arrival. The taxi arrived and was quite angry that we were going to the Hotel Posta in Moltrasio. He understood we were going to the Hotel Posta in Como. He said at that time of night, they do not leave the city, wanted to know if we gave incorrect information and we said that our host had called for the taxi. He drove like a complete maniac. I thought at one point he might just put us out of the car and I wasn’t sure if that would be good (because he was driving so fast) or bad (because we still had a few kilometers to go!). When he arrived at the hotel, Barry and Brenda were just walking back from their dinner next door. I jumped out of the car, L.J. thanked him and tipped him well and he changed his tune about how he acted, wishing us a wonderful evening. I was just happy to be safe at the hotel! It was a magical day with a few bumps in the road but I still give it an A+ – amazing experiences, new friends and time together!