Concordia

Two of our guests left today around lunch time, returning to Padova.

We took a ferry over to Bellagio with the two remaining guests today. The vessel Concordia shown here passsing the Metropole Hotel is a paddle steamer launched in 1926, and still using the original engine, though now powered by diesel rather than coal.

On the way back to Lenno our ship (rather more modern) was caught in a storm. Continuous thunder, lightening, hail and the wind gusting at 70 km/h. Visibility was down to almost nothing. The ships are equipped with radar, but we were more or less stopped and not going anywhere.

The ferry was very busy as it had on board tourists returning to their coach on the western side of the lake. When the storm hit everybody who was outside came into the closed areas of the ship which became quite crowded. Luckily we had looked at the forecast and had headed straight inside when we boarded.

When the storm hit us the ship sat it out in the lake. Although the ferry had been due to make several stops before Lenno we went there directly without stopping anywhere else. We arrived late despite not stopping due to the time we had spent riding out the storm.

By the time we had walked back to the apartment the storm had passed. Later we went down to the village for a pizza, though we sat inside on this occasion.