More about the Bellagio trip

As I mentioned, Lake Como was awash with beautiful lake front villas. In Bellagio there are two villas that have opened their gardens to the public. On our second day in Bellagio, we decided to stay in town and visit one of the them, Villa Melzi. Villa Melzi was owned by the Vice President of the Italian Republic under Napoleon.

The main house is closed, as it is a private residence, but visitors can still roam the stunning gardens, plus visit a small museum and chapel. The azaleas were finishing up when we were there in early June, but the gardens were still ablaze with all kinds of color and a beautiful variety of gorgeous trees. This is a painting I just completed of a gazebo in the gardens that sits right at the edge of the lake. It measures 24" high by 20" wide.

Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
www.jenniferyoung.com
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Bellagio Trip Report, cont'd

One of the nicest things about our room was that it looked out over an old fishing village called Pescallo. From where we sat we could see the rooftops and the fishing boats sitting on the glassy water. It was a beautiful scene from above, so I imagined that it would even be more beautiful up close!

The day after our arrival we followed a very long narrow, sloped stairway (a little street- Bellagio style) that led to the village of Pescallo.

It is my understanding that at one time Pescallo was the location where they held an open air fish market. Today it is a quaint, sleepy little lakeside town. We went down there several times to sketch and just contemplate the beauty and peacefulness of the place.

On two different occasions I was fortunate enough to meet a couple of the elderly villagers who were living out their golden years in Pescallo. They were so gracious and kind- and patient! They urged me to speak in my broken Italian and just smiled as I undoubtedly butchered their beautiful language.

Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
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Back from Lake Como

I have been back for a couple of days and it was a marvelous trip! I'm not holding out on telling about it; I have plans to discuss my trip here on my blog. Unfortunately this blogging program has been unable to post my pictures for weeks now. Apparently this is a problem with other users on this system too. Very frustrating. Hopefully this problem will resolve itself soon. Otherwise I may need to look elsewhere for a more permanent solution. It would be a pain to have to move everything to a different site, but what is an Art Blog without pictures??

To be continued....

Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
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Bellagio Trip Report

Well I've discovered a workaround to the picture posting problem, so on with the show:

What a magnificent trip! Arrived home a couple of days ago, but the jet lag hit me a bit harder this time. Still not feeling entirely "on my game", but it was worth the spent energy to be sure! I thought I'd share some of my wonderful experiences about our trip here on the blog, since for me, travel is such a huge part of what inspires me as a painter.

We based ourselves in the village of Bellagio, which is a beautifully situated hillside lake town that looks out over the three arms of Lake Como. If you look at the lake from an ariel viewpoint, it's shape forms an inverted "Y". Bellagio sits right in the middle of that Y, and it is truly the jewel of the lake.

The only difficulty with staying in Bellagio, for us, was getting there without a car. Even with the super-efficient public transportation systems in Italy, there is no direct route to this town. If one has a car (and arguably a lot of nerve), one can drive along the very winding roads and into the village of Bellagio itself. But we opted to be without a car for this trip, since the ferry systems, once there, are excellent. Also the streets in the village are tiny; in some places barely fitting one car, side mirror to side mirror!

So our route was to fly into Malpensa airport (outside of Milan) and then to take the Malpensa express train, change in Saronno (the town famous only because they make the Saronno amaretto cookies) and then arrive in Como. From Como we then took the "rapido" ferry to Bellagio. Even with all of that we still ended up arriving in Bellagio fairly early- around 12:30 local time.

Our hotel pick was Hotel Belvedere, which is situated on a hill at the top of the village. I was initially worried about it being too high up and too far out of reach from the center, but Bellagio is so small that there was no reason for such worries. My only word of caution for those of you who do not pack light, is that Bellagio is a hill town and some of it's "streets" are actually long flights of stairs. In order to get to the hotel from the pier where you are delivered by ferry, you have to either get a cab or lug your luggage up these steep streets.

We opted for the lugging, as we only had two carry on bags and purse and backpack. This way of packing is new to me, and frankly it was a miracle compared to how I have traveled before. But with a week-long trip, it was totally do-able, and I was incredibly grateful on the train, ferry, and stairs!

We were rewarded for our climb with a lovely hotel and a room with a marvelous view and balcony. We both really loved having the balcony. I would get dressed in the morning and go out and sketch and paint, and then Dave would have his time to perform his morning routine before going down for breakfast.

...No, we weren't drinking wine before breakfast! This photo was taken in the early evening before dinner, which was actually the best time to paint because I was completely in the shade. There were a few interesting views from our balcony. This little watercolor sketch is a view looking out to the left side of our balcony, over a marvelous terraced landscape. It is small- 6x8", pen & ink/ watercolor:

Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
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Leaving for Lake Como Today

Today is the day! We will be heading out shortly for a most beautiful Italian destination. I plan to do some painting while I am there, but since we are going to be going to a lot of different little lake towns, I've decided to carry a minimum supply of art materials. I'd love to bring oils when I can stay for a longer period, but this trip I will bring my travel watercolor set, similar to the one shown here, (except mine has alot more pull-out palette space). In addition to the pan colors, I'm bringing a small selection of Windsor & Newton professional grade artists' colors in tubes.

Other supplies:

• cotton rag
• small selection of brushes
• watercolor journal
• watercolor papers
• tape
• small painting board
• waterproof ink drawing pens
• pencils, HB graphite and softer
• eraser
• sketch pad

Almost all of these supplies, plus my camera can fit in my big black tote (the same I took on my last trip to Italy). I am having trouble uploading images to the blog today, but you can see the bag in this picture. I couldn't fit my folding stool in my carry-on luggage, so I will just have to wing it and hope I can paint in areas where I'll be able to have a seat somewhere.

No blogging while we're gone, but I plan to post some pictures when we return. Ci vediamo!

Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
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