Menaggio: the end of the sunshine and the start of the rain... (that's a metaphor about car troubles!) 8th May 2026
- Brett Sedgwick
- May 14
- 5 min read
Buongiorno dall'Italia!!
We drove from Leichenstein over the Swiss Alps, through endless tunnels, down numerous switchback turns and arrived in Menaggio in Lake Como.
Bella Italia - makes my heart sing.
Apart from being in Scotland, Italy feels like home to me. I know a little of the language and can have basic convos with people - mainly based around food, booze and transport -, and I love the scenery and food - of course.
We drove to a free car park - Parcheggio de Comunal - but it was full. We went to a secondi parcheggio - also full. A walking reccy at the end of the road saw a, wait for it… CARAVAN PARK.
I asked the very laidback owner if he had a pitch for the night, si, for quattro nights - si!!
Woo Hoo!
We lumbered into the tight spot - overlooking Lake Como and not a minute too soon for the last few km’s, a burning smell had been coming from Delphi. We got parked up and googled what the smell could have been, and proceeded to do diagnostic checks of all components. We couldn’t see anything on the surface level, so we decided to wait a few days and not start her up for four days.
So, we had four days in which to explore Lake Como, but first, Jen-Jen found some Mute Swans and just had to investigate.
We walked into Menaggio itself and looked at the old town, the piazza, and noted where the ferry terminals were, etc. We then came back to Delphi and tried to cook some polli (chicken) in the oven. We also tried to boil the jug, but found that we had no electricity! Great, we thought. mechanical and electrical faults. I checked that the power socket hadn't tripped, and the five American students next door had power, so I thought it must be Delphi. Not to worry, we’ll investigate in the morning. I turned on the gas and cooked a great meal of chicken breast with a puttanesca sauce, and garlic asparagus (called Asperges in France… classic), washed down with a Tuscan Chianti. Check it out!
Bella.
We then put our good clobber on and walked into the old town for a nightcap drink and a gelato. Good times.
The next morning, we awoke to the carbon monoxide alarm going off its brain again.
Great!! - Nothing like being slowly poisoned overnight. We opened all of the vents and then spent a good few hours eliminating sources of possible contamination.
I fixed the power by using a socket on a different pitch, and we worked out that because this old, grungy caravan park has bugger all rules, that maybe the power wasn’t up to code.
(Side note: the caravan park was totally run down, and all of the permanent vans with annexes were all boarded up. The chain mail fence was torn in places, and “needed some love” would be a massive understatement. We got chatting to an elderly Dutch woman who lives in Holland for 7 months of the year and in her own “house” in the caravan park for the other five months. She told us that she’s been coming here for 45 years! All of the owners of the vans are either very elderly or dead, and this park is an embarrassment to the citizens of Menaggio. The developers want it and want to develop the shit out of it, because of its location and because it doesn’t fit in with their idea of Menaggio. The owners are sitting on a gold mine, but won’t sell. Good on ‘em. Love the grunginess of this dilapidated duderanch even more now!! Old mate at reception also said I could have a fire at the pitch, just “Be Careful!”
So, the electricity was good, and we worked out after trial and error that when our fridge operates on gas, it leaks. OK. Good to know. It will just be caravan parks with electricity until we get it fixed.
By now it was also raining. It wasn’t raining heavily, so we decided to go and check out the “triangle” of towns via ferry: Menaggio, Bellaggio and Veranna.
We walked to the ferry in the rain, grabbed day pass tickets - 35 Euro for both of us - and got the ferry to Bellagio.
What a stunner of a town. We were glad that it was sporadic rain and that there weren’t 5000 tourists as we got to walk the cobbled alleys, window shop, drink cafe, and visit churches in relative peace and quiet.
Veranna was our next stop, and again, it was gorgeous. We did the Lover’s Walk along the water, checked out some shops, had panini and coffee before we got the ferry to another stop, which wasn’t planned: Lenno.
Lenno is the furthest south out of these towns, and it, again, was beautiful. We embarked on a pretty long walk up to see the famous 12th-century masterpiece: Villa Del Balbiano.
Casino Royale (James Bond) and Attack of the Clones (Star Wars) both had scenes filmed here, and we spent an hour or two walking around the beautiful gardens and learning a bit about the various owners of the joint. I won’t bore you with these deets, but check out Jen-Jen’s gallery below: (including newlyweds getting their wedding piccies done.)
By this time, we were exhausted and had missed the 3.30 pm ferry and would have to wait for another one in three hours. Instead of staying - and probably drinking - for all of that time, we caught the bus back. Well, the 4.10 pm didn’t show, so we got the 4.40 pm with 50 other people. It was steamy and crowded, but we were back in Delphi by 5.30 pm, got changed and walked about 6 minutes to a restaurant that we had looked at before. We had a drink and ordered the prawn and avocado salad and the mixed grilled seafood. It was OK, with the standout being grilled sea bass. Extraordinary!!
We got back to Delphi around 8.00 pm, just when the real rain started.
It then rained solidly for about 36 hours.
On the day of departure, we worked out that we would drive to the town of Como - about an hour away for the night, before slowly making our way from West to East across Italy to Venice.
OK - map is locked into Google Maps and Tom-Tom, Delphi has been idling for 20 minutes with no smell, waste is emptied and water semi-refilled (by me filling a five-litre bottle about 10 times from the tap at the shower block and walking back to Delphi). Let’s roll.
We only got 4 km down the road, and the STOP and OIL lights had come on twice.
We managed to blag a parking spot, back in to it off the road and looked at the manual and Google to see what to do. Hazard lights blinking furiously...
“If you continue driving when STOP and OIL lights come on, you may cause permanent, catastrophic damage to your vehicle.”
FUCKKK!!!!!
The next two hours saw us ringing insurance companies, organising tow-trucks, looking for accommodation and packing up the fridge and clothes for a few days, as we don’t know where we would be staying.
The tow-truck turned up, loaded Delphi on, we jumped in the front of the truck with the driver, and he drove back up the switchbacks to a town called Porlezza, about 20 minutes away.
And… this is where I now type. We are in an AirBnb. We transferred most of our cold and frozen stuff to the fridge here, and we have been eating it over the last 24 hours. We are waiting to hear what is wrong with Delph, and can’t plan anything until we hear what is wrong, get approval from the insurance company to authorise the work, and order parts in if needed, etc…
Travel is never dull, my friends.
Until next time, Ciao and Buon Appetito,
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