Our gut feeling told us that we had stayed in one spot for long enough, so this morning, we packed up our camp in Dongo, lake Como, and drove off South, not knowing where the roads would take us for the night. We hoped to find another nice camping spot on the lake Como shoreline, but it turned out that the campsites were rather scarcely distributed at the southern end of the lake. After an hour or so of winding through narrow streets and lovely Italian villages with countless lovely espresso stops – but without the needed parking spots to use them – we arrived in Como, which lies just South of the Alps. We have probably not seen the nicest part of it, because to me it felt like on giant industrial zone, with Carrefours, Lidl and various hardware stores following each other up. Not my place. PI stopped twice for an espresso. Both times I returned to the Nugget empty-handed, because the places looked like hell’s angels hideouts, and I was a bit scared to set foot inside. A decaf trip then. From Como we drove through an eternal industrial zone towards Lecco, the city at the other southern tip of the lake (lake Como is an upside down Y more or less – if you’re creative and really want it to be). Lecco seemed almost equally uninspiring as Como, so we decided to have a look at a campsite a bit to the North on the East coast. The East coast is a mostly tunneled road, and within a matter of minutes we had arrived at the campsite, which was located at the end of a narrow and very steep alleyway. This place looked stuffed and almost as cramped as the alleyway. It felt ‘not for me’, so without much discussion, I turned the van around, which took some creative twisting and turning, but worked out eventually. We decided there and then that that was it for lake Como. On to something new.
We continued our path towards Bergamo, and from there continued our journey back into the mountains. Heike soon found a lonely campsite on Google Maps which had good reviews, and was located halfway along the West coast of Lago d’Endine. Why not. Let’s go. The road from Bergamo to the campsite soon became more quiet and the surrounding scenery more idyllic. This lake is a dwarf compared to the giant lakes that line the Northern Italian border. But it’s cute enough to spend a night or maybe two. The campsite is alright, they have a playground, a small pool, great vistas, and the friendly lady at the reception makes a good cappuccino. I’m happy. We’ll see where we end up after…
Robin Heinen 