Ah, the last full day in Monza. I had nothing planned; I presumed Jon may have. Following a late start and catching up with paperwork, Jon fired up the company car and we headed towards Lecco.
A view from Jon's balcony - the immediate area is a park/playground; the really green area on the far left is a soccer pitch, and to the right of it is a tennis court (or maybe two). And if you squint REALLY hard, in the far distance are the Dolomites. [If you do see them by squinting, let me know how you did it!]
Quite a few trees in the area, and just a few blocks off to the right was Parco di Monza, a very large park which I managed to avoid seeing :-(
More apartment buildings, and more trees.
Jon and Sue's apartment building looks like this one - they are a pair, with a common underground garage - lock up, one car space per apartment. And the roof gardeners have been really busy there too.
However, before reaching Lecco, daredevil Jon headed off into new territory as we (eventually) headed south along Lago di Lecco.
A closer view of the scar in the mountains - I presume from quarrying operations. It was visible in the far left of the above photo. And it really stands out from quite some distance south.
From here we wandered down to the lake shore, and followed the road south along the shore. Jon remembered a motorcycle accessory store along here, and we found it. Although it looked closed, Jon pulled in and we found it open, so in we went. And I found the summer weight gloves I was looking for - Dianese and very nice.
We started retracing our steps towards Lecco, staying on this side of the lake heading towards Bellagio.
The road to Bellagio runs along the shore of the lake; you can see it in this photo. But part way along there is a road running up the hill and crossing over to the other side of this peninsula. We thought there might be a good place to eat along here, and did indeed find one, but it didn't serve that illusive "light lunch" that we really were trying to find. However, there was a lookout on the road, so we stopped for a few more happy snaps, such as this one, looking north along Lago di Lecco, towards where it becomes Lago di Como.
The view across Lago di Lecco - roughly east.
So it was down the hill and continue towards Bellagio, looking for some place to eat. A light lunch. We found what looked like a good candidate, and parked the car. Turned out either it wasn't open or wasn't such a good candidate after all. I don't recall exactly. However, there was a sign pointing down a side road heading towards the lake. So we drove down there and found an excellent restaurant. Of course, they didn't serve light lunches either, but by then hunger and starvation were overcoming us :-)
After an excellent meal we had coffee - served in these dual handled cups. Not sure if they were for couples to share, or for left hand drinkers!
By the time lunch concluded, it was time to return to Monza for some final chores before I left - such as backing up my photos to Jon's iMac, in case of catastrophe on the way home. And, of course, the insurance of doing that worked - all photos arrived home with me.
Then it was time to drink and nibble on the balcony, watching the world (or in this case the sky) go by.
Hmm, some storms building up - these were south, but came to nothing - at least in Monza.
And as we drank and nibbled the night away...
Tomorrow was an early start, as the airport is the other side of Milan from Monza. So it was time to pack almost everything and be ready for the mad dash.
Jon proved an excellent host, and I much enjoyed my stay.
Italy In July