This year’s Corteo Manzoniano featured many of the same actors and costumes as last year, but added a new twist, winding through the streets of Lecco at night, by torchlight.
In this video: Renzo and Lucia, lanzechenecchi, Cardinale Federigo Borromeo, i Promessi Sposi, Lecco, torchlight parade, horses
Sadly, the longer version planned for the next afternoon was rained out. But the evening was a success – they’ll be doing it again next year, and I may be able to get better footage then.
We set out for a lunch somewhere along Lake Como, knowing only that we wanted a view. After pulling into a few parking lots and then changing our minds, we climbed the hill towards the Monastery of Piona, following signs for Ristorante Belvedere – with that name, it had to have a view.
The Belvedere advertised fish as its specialty and, like most Italian restaurants, had a menu posted outside. I was at first confused by the strange prices, not rounded neatly off to the nearest euros.
€ 4.13 for a first course? Then I realized that the prices were also given in lire, printed alongside their exact conversion into euros. This appears to be the only restaurant in Italy which did not take advantage of the change to the euro to gouge its customers. Before the euro, 8,000 lire for a plate of pasta would have been considered middling-reasonable. When the euro came along, most restaurants simply lopped off the extra zeroes to arrive at 8 euros for the same dish, an extortion to which we consumers have meekly consented. Ristaurateurs claim that their costs have risen, but Ristorante Belvedere has somehow managed to keep prices low, without compromising on quality.
Although the specialty was fish, I had a starter of homemade liver paté – I can never resist paté – which was good, mild-flavored, and creamy in texture. For a first course I had home-made pumpkin gnocchi, whose slight sweetness contrasted nicely with the home-made pesto they were dressed with. I didn’t have a second course, but the rest of the party had fresh-caught lavarello (a white fish native to Lake Como), simply baked in the oven, and freshwater shrimp braised in butter, all good.
My dessert was something special: locally picked wild blueberries with ice cream. They were probably the best blueberries I’ve had in my life.
Between the four of us we had two appetizers, three primi (pasta), three secondi, two desserts, three coffees, water, wine (a good Soave served by the liter), and a Limoncello. The total cost was about €97 – cheap at the price! We’ll definitely be going back to the Belvedere. (And the view was indeed spectacular.)
This one’s for Carol & Steve, who went shopping in Boston and vlogged it.
La Bottega del Maiale (“The Hog Shop”) is a small gourmet food shop in the heart of downtown Lecco (Piazza XX Settembre) specializing, obviously, in pork products, but they also have a great selection of cheeses, wines, sott’oli (preserves in oil), sottaceti (preserves in vinegar), and many other wonderful things.
I didn’t try to subtitle the Italian conversation going on between me and the shop ladies. The manager gave me permission to film, but the younger woman at the cash register initially said, “Oh, no, no, no – don’t film me – I’ll hide under here [the cash counter].” I said, “That’s fine, I don’t film anybody who doesn’t want to be filmed.” Then I mentioned that my daughter is filming all her friends, and they’re all excited to be on the Internet. “Oh, yes, yes, yes, in that case it’s fine!” she said.
Towards the end you can hear me say:”I think they’re going to hate me for this” – referring to viewers from outside of Italy who will probably be salivating by the end of the video (as long as they’re not vegetarian).
You may have heard that George Clooney owns a villa on Lake Como. He’s over on the Como/Menaggio side, about as far from Lecco as you can get and still be on the same lake, so we are not exactly rubbing elbows with him. But it seems that his fancy friends have now taken a fancy to “our” lake.
George has bought the two villas flanking his own, partly for privacy, partly to have room for all his guests. Brad Pitt and various other luminaries were up here a few months ago filming “Oceans Twelve,” and local rumor has it that Mr. Pitt fell in love with the place and is seeking a home somewhere in the Varenna area – a good deal closer to us.
Richard Gere is also supposedly looking for a villa somewhere on the lake. Well, none of these is among my favorite actors, but they’re not bad additions to the scenery hereabouts, so I guess I won’t complain. Especially if Brad Pitt goes boating in bathing briefs…
