Raj was right when he told Senorita in the red
convertible in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge “Asli Europe to yahi hai” (this is real Europe) as they traversed
through pine-carpeted hillocks, doll-houses, azure sky and all things that make
for a picture-perfect postcard.
Smartheart and I took Raj’s advice literally and went around northern Italy and western Austria in our sky-blue Fiat 500C. We did not haul a list of must-see museums, palaces, churches or places of historical significance. This time, we just wanted to be soothed by natural beauty. After all what’s the point of taking a vacation if the mind is put to use there as well?
Our first hotel after landing in Munich was booked in a town called Menaggio on Lake Como in Italy. We touched five countries to reach Menaggio from Munich: Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein (MS Word shows an error on the word; but yes, it’s a country), Switzerland and Italy. It was a mini realization to the concept of one world. If the sign boards pointing to beginning and end of a country were removed, we wouldn’t have known which country we were in. Passing through hamlets, serendipitously turning into blossomy meadows and serene lakes, posing by every speck of homogenous yet novel sceneries for the camera as if to prove to Davies that we have time to stand and stare, we reached Menaggio.
We picked Menaggio as it offered a cheaper accommodation
option compared to other reasonable-sized lake-side towns. It is one of three
popular towns on Lake Como, the others being Bellagio and Varenna. The three
towns are connected by frequently operating ferries. We reached Menaggio in
late evening. Our hotel was lake facing, something which is not a luxury in
such towns but a rather commonly-found alternative. We opened our balcony to
notice something like huge clusters of stars having descended on the other side
of the lake. A little later, we realized those blinking lights were town/s on
the lake too which appear as stars because of some phenomenon beyond my
understanding but certainly within that of Google.
Varenna could not hold us captive for long as Bellagio had set the bars very high. Varenna is also a quaint little town with its share of shops and restaurants but bluntly speaking, Bellagio is nicer.
From Italy, we drove towards Austria in order to satiate my
fascination for snow. It was peak summer (end of May) but we came to know in
our internet research about the few places in the world that offer year-round
skiing and Neustift Im Stubaital in Austria was one in our geographical range. By the time we reached Stubai region, it was
dark. But the next morning we opened our hotel room window and realized we were
staying in the middle of the scenery that we were driving through last couple
of days! We rode for an hour to reach the glacier region. There we took the
gondola up to the apex. And from there we saw lots of whipped-cream-like snow, sometimes
chocolate brownie peeping out from the snow in form of nutty mountains. We made spooky snowman and making it a witness, we vowed to make such an unconventional
trip every year.
Wonderful Article Smita ! Love your way of expressing the journey. I could picture it as I was reading the article. Liked your beginning - of reproducing the Dilwale scene and end it by making a good commitment in front of the snowman :)
ReplyDeletePlease keep writing and amusing us !
Love
Poorva.
thanks for the encouragement dear! glad you enjoyed it..
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