This beautiful statue stands on the grounds of one of the most beautiful villa‘s in Italy. She longingly stares out across Lago Como, waiting. The canopy tree keeps her shaded in the hot Italian sun. She is beautiful, surrounded in luxury, but strikes me as so utterly alone.
I have been very few places in the world as perfectly beautiful as Lake Como in Italy. I came to this spot, as I do many spots looking for this specific place. So often I find I journey great distances to find the places in photos I have seen…I find so much more. It was a cool, windy day on the lake, but warmer than it should have been for early April. The ferries were filled with people come for the day. People shopped in a way that only Italian’s can. People ate gelato, in spite of the cold breeze as if to signal how utterly over winter they all were. This day, the beginning bloom of the wisteria and the warmth of the sun was all people needed…we were alive.
There is a beauty on Lake Come that is quite unlike anywhere else I have been. The small lake front towns (Como, Varenna, Lenno) are far too crowded with tourists looking to get away from the city for the day. April when I visited, the wind was still biting and the temperature too cold for my taste, but still the beauty is there. There is a stillness and a calmness to these waters. I am all too happy to one day return and spend more time.
I read a story recently about a man who’s wife was dying. She asked to be taken on one last trip before she passed, she wanted to be surrounded by beauty and love. He thought of all the places he had been (he was also a traveler like me)…he took his wife to Lake Como.
I can’t say I have a favorite place in the world. There is simply too much wonder and beauty…too much flavor. The one thing I can say about the man, he made a perfect choice.
I said last week I sometimes travel just for one photo. The great thing is you find so much more along the way, but often singular things capture my imagination and pull me to them with some great unseen force. I saw another rendition of this scene on a travel website when I knew I was going to Milan. I was looking for things in and around the great fashion capitol to do and Lago Como caught my fancy purely BECAUSE of this scene.
The statue looks over the most lovely vista at Villa Balbianello and gestures; to the surroundings and almost to the heavens. He seems to say, perhaps here, they are the same. Italy is a long way to travel to see the view of an old statue. I stood in this spot, sat in this spot for hours, the warm sun penetrating the biting cold April Lake Como wind. I thought of all places I have been and seen; I agreed with the statue.
