We did not plan on spending any time in Bellano on our Italy adventures other than using it as a convenient train station from which to pick up a rental car for our time along Lake Como. An Italian train strike (fortunately, announced with ample time to make alternative plans) and a lack of other rental car options meant that we decided that spending a night in Bellano all of a sudden sounded like a wonderful idea. Lemons to lemonade… we were going to enjoy this side quest.

Bellano, like so many small towns along Lake Como, has the distinct advantage of amazing scenery with water and mountains, and on our one evening there, perfectly clear skies and glorious early fall weather.

After our train from Turin via Milan was delayed for a couple of hours, we were ravenous and started our time with drinks and dinner. It was a cool evening, but nothing that would keep a couple of people from Saskatoon from patio time in such beautiful surroundings. This was this exact evening of the trip where after careful study I decided that the limoncello spritz was so much more to my tastes than the Aperol spritz.

The drinks were going down easily, the pizzas were delicious (including my wife’s gluten free one) and the backdrop of mountains on the other side of the lake made us forget that this wasn’t in our initial plans.

After dinner we did a short walk through atmospheric Bellano starting along its lakefront promenade.

We then did a short tour through the alleys leading up the hills of the town discovering some beautiful churches and scenes that felt like they were quintessential Italy. The town was quiet and we enjoyed our stroll. Sadly, we did not come across a gelato place – that would have been the perfect cherry on top of a lovely evening.

Back at our rental, we engaged in a Bellano Yahtzee championship. Fuelled by little glasses of limoncello from the bottle that we had brought along from our first night in Milan, my luck turned and this marked the start of a nice winning streak.

We had a restful evening and all that was left of our serendipitous detour to Bellano for a day was a breakfast of pastries and cappuccinos followed by a little bit more strolling on our way back toward the train station to pick up our rental car.

The combination of having no real plans, the lakeside location, and the beautiful architecture nestled into the hills in this area made for a perfect unexpected day. The final tally for this part of our journey: Us 1 – Italian train craziness 0.