Why You’ve Heard Of Lake Como

Lake Como is in northern Italy in the shadow of the Alps. It is known for the charmingly haphazard little towns, the amazing villas and gorgeous gardens on it.  In short, it is a is breathtakingly beautiful spot.

Here are some reasons you might have heard of or seen it:

• George Clooney has a house there.  He owns the 18th century mansion, Villa L’Oleandra in Laglio.

• When James Bond shoots Mr. White in Casino Royale, he does it at Villa La Gaeta, in San Siro.  In the beginning of Quantum of Solace, Bond drives by Lake Como.
• Villa Erba in Cernobbio was featured in Ocean’s Twelve, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt.  It served as the estate of “The Night Fox,” François Toulour.
• Several movies have been filmed at Villa del Balbianello just outside Lenno.  A Month By The Lake (starring Vanessa Redgrave and Uma Thurman) was filmed at the house and various other locations around the lake.   Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones was also filmed at Villa del Balbianello.

• Poets and writers Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , Lord Byron, Percy Blythe Shelley and Mary Shelley hung out there.
• So did composer Giuseppe Verdi.  He composed a part of La Traviata in Villa Ricordi.

• If George isn’t enough for you, Sir Richard Branson, owns a large villa near Villa Balbianello.  Matthew Bellamy of Muse and Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho also have places there.  Fashion designer Gianni Versace, used to live at the Villa Le Fontanelle in Moltrasio.

• The lake is also known for its pollution.  If the water looks a little green, that’s because it is green. Phosphates and nitrates from pollutants have caused an excessive growth of algae, a process called eutrophication.  Its waters have been too polluted for swimming since 1997.

Lauterbraunnen Valley

 

Switzerland is filled with wonderful, amazing, unique diverse places.   The Lauterbraunnen Valley in the Bernese Alps is one of these places.  It is one of the deepest trough valleys in the alps.  The mountains, with their visible limestone, rise directly up on either side of the valley.  They are perpendicular to the valley floor.  Since the valley is only about a kilometer wide, the dramatic cliffs are everywhere you look.

Snowmelt + cliffs = waterfalls.  The Lauterbrunnen Valley is filled with them; there are 72.  The largest and most well known is Staubach Falls.  Others include: Trümmelbach and Schmadrifällen. We drove into the valley at night and could hear the falls.  The next morning we woke up to this view!

The cliffs on either side make it a paradise for base jumpers (just take a look at the second photo to see where the spot where they jump).  While the vertical valley walls may be great for base jumpers, you can imagine what happens when it snows.  Avalanches are a huge danger.  This is Switzerland, they’re prepared.  Avalanche shelters dot the valley floor.

They also attack the problem from up above.  These snow fences were at high altitudes to protect towns.  This one is protecting Wengen (a town just above the valley).

We aren’t the only ones who like this area.  In 1911, J. R. R. Tolkien hiked from nearby Interlaken to the Lauterbrunnen Valley.  The valley’s landscape made a powerful impression and was a model for his sketches and watercolours of the fictitious valley of  Middle-earth‘s Rivendell valley, in his The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books. It was a setting for the car chase in the 1969 James Bond (George Lazenby) film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.  It’s the one where Bond escapes from Schilthorn by skiing down the mountain to reach the nearby village of Mürren at its base.