Lago Maggiore

We got up, packed up and headed out of our Venice apartment and got the Vaparetto to the train station.  We got the 8:50 train to Milan, where we, after some consternation, finally located the Hertz car rental several blocks from the train station, and got the car and head north the lake district and Lago Maggiore.

Patty’s company owns a sunglass company, “Electric Visual” and one of their manufacturers has his factory near here and also has a sailboat on Lago Maggiore.  He gave us directions to the marina by text message as we drove from Milan. We found the marina and Davide, the owner of the factory hosted us for lunch then out to his sailboat.

We sailed close hauled across the lake, and around several small islands with mansions on them, one of which is still occupied by the same family that turned down Columbus’ entreaty to finance a westward voyage to India.

After a great sail, we got back to the dock about 8:00 p.m. and drove to our little hotel (which has been in operation since 1865) on the shore of the lake.  We had a late dinner in the restaurant and were ready for bed.