The popular tourist destination needs planning if you are to get the most out of it.
COMO Italy is all about the quest to see George Clooney’s Villa Oleandra residence or one of his other three villas that overlook the magnificent Lake Como.
Problem is that mission is also the focus of tens of thousands of other tourists, with a photograph of the villa or the man himself the holy grail.
The cheapest way to see the lake is to take a public ferry.
The only problem was that the website to book tickets did not work and then crashed. Apparently, according to local taxi drivers, the website crashes often.
So, it was down to the harbour to the ticket office only to join a queue more than 100 metres long. A quick check of the ticket office revealed a sign that announced the next day was sold out.
A rethink was needed – perhaps hire our own boat? We found an app called GetMyBoat and were able to hire a small runabout for a couple of hours to explore the lake and find Mr Clooney’s villa.
There are local boating rules to absorb, although it appeared to us nobody seemed to follow the various speed restrictions.
One golden rule is that, as a private runabout, you must give way to all traffic. An eagle eye is essential particularly with high-speed hydrofoils plying the lake.
After five minutes of instruction, we were set with no skipper’s ticket required.
Cost was €57 ($93) an hour which is steep with the weakness of the Australian dollar but we thought ‘you only live once’.
We were also on another quest to see the Villa del Balbianello used in the James Bond film Casino Royale.
Mission accomplished without running into any other marine traffic. Como needs planning if you are to get the most out of the popular tourist destination, particularly in the hectic summer months. Locals will tell you spring, or autumn are better times to visit. There are a host of tours on offer, and you should secure your ferry tickets in advance. Restaurants were not an issue, with plenty of variety on offer and bookings not required.
A challenge, however, is the vehicle restrictions for the inner town and that includes Uber, which we were to discover.
We had ditched trains as a mean to get to Milan’s airport as it required at least one change and opted for a taxi, which is a 45-minute drive.
We found https://city-airport-taxis.com/ and ordered a taxi for a noon pickup for a 4.15pm flight.
Noon came and went so we reached out to the company, which informed us they did not have our booking despite our confirmation. A call to its emergency contact number went dead as did its London number.
Panic set in, with flights full, missing one’s chariot home would be a disaster.
We called up Uber and luckily there was a driver from Milan in the area wanting to get home.
But it took us 30 minutes to get to him as he was not allowed into the historic walled town.
A 200m rush over cobbled streets with suitcases in tow was required. He ran towards us and rescued my wife, Christine, and then had chilled water and wipes to cool us down.
Repeated calls and emails to the original provider went unanswered.
A check of reviews reveals that about 12 per cent are negative, with the driver not turning up.
That is critical for flights, so next time we will revert to our usual provider, Blacklane, when overseas.
Westpac thankfully stepped in with a credit card refund.
