Lake Como

When we were in Milan a month ago we spent a day at Lake Como in the hope it would be cooler than the city (it was, but only marginally so). We bought a 22€ combined train/ferry ticket from Trenord and wandered up for an afternoon of sights - which is exactly what we got.

The train up was swish, airconditioned and comfortable.

The train back was from 1980 and none of the above

 Some of the boats of Lake Como

 This is what we were expecting to see...

 Yup - that's a monastery half way up there

 

 The view from the boat

I really enjoyed our half day on the water, even if (as is usual) I had no idea what I was actually looking at. Even though it was crowded, it wasn't too crowded, one of my 3 gelati of the day was the best I have ever had (white chocolate/vanilla), and I had a day messing about on boats.

Which is all good.

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Loire Valley Nature: An entry for Small Elephant Hawk Moth Deilephila porcellus has been added. This rather punk influenced moth is a good example to use if you want to illustrate the new research showing that tropical species are not more colourful than temperate.

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A la cuisine hier: Chicken thighs slow cooked with lots of spices, onion, homegrown shredded cabbage and slices of celeriac in beer (with a dash of tomato paste). 

The last of the pears are ripe and need using, so the big ones got the red wine glaze treatment, the little ones were quartered and poached in a heavy white wine syrup flavoured with cardamom.