Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Long travel day today on 3 trains, to get from Zermatt to Brig to Milan to Como San Giovanni. Every train was on time and all were great experiences. The Brig to Milan train was a high-speed one, so seat reservations were required in addition to our Eurail pass. We arrived in Torno about 7pm. Torno is only about 7 km from Como but takes about 30 mins by road. It is serviced by the Lake Como ferries, so we thought it would be the perfect place to stay away from the crowds in Como itself.

The house we’d rented was lovely but Torno is an old village perched on the edge of one of the hills surrounding Lake Como so cars can’t get near much of it. The taxi dropped us off on the main road—based on the maps and the managers’ information pack, we’d calculated it was the shortest way to the property. While it may have been, they didn’t mention how many steps were involved! We then bumped our luggage down about 400 steps before we found the house (which was 4 stories and also full of steps!! ). Most of those steps from the main road were long and sloping (and rough!) with shallow risers, so we were continually fighting against gravity, which wanted to take our wheeled luggage down all by itself. It was also HOT and my jeans were soaked with sweat from the exertion of holding back heavy luggage to prevent it from ending at the bottom in a broken pile. I was very glad I’d invested in some silicon wheel covers for my luggage wheels.

After a long drink to cool down and a bite to eat at Bar Italia near the ferry terminal, we walked up to the municipal offices (about 100+ more steps) and watched and followed the video of the ‘no stairs’ path that the managing agency had provided in the info pack for the house. The path started off well, but by the time we got to the point where we had to turn towards the house, the cobblestones were very rough (not good for luggage wheels). But the worst was that the video stopped here with an arrow pointing, yet there were a further 60 steps down to the house at the end of it—the info pack and video did not mention those steps at all. The other route to the house was from the ferry terminal—this was a flat option, with a very good path, but at the end of it there were another 40 very steep steps (with the handrail not starting until about 3 steps up) up to the house. Yes, I counted all those damned steps!!! The house was really inaccessible for anyone with mobility issues, with heavy or bulky luggage, and/or who couldn’t cope with lots of steps.

Side note: I had asked the owners/managers on Booking.com several times in the previous months about the step situation to get to the property and asking for DETAILED instructions as Google Maps and similar weren’t clear as to whether there was a road there or not. They never did answer the question about the steps, and while we got good instructions for getting to the property a week before, including a video of the ‘no stairs’ option, there was no mention of accessing it from the ferry terminal, nor any mention that the ‘no stairs’ option had a further 60 stairs to negotiate at the end! After our stay, when I reviewed the property on Booking.com, I mentioned that the steps would be an issue for anyone with heavy luggage or mobility issues—they had the cheek to respond saying I should have reached out (I did, numerous times) and they would’ve found a more suitable property for us! I call BS on that!

It was a nice house (we had a friend joining us the next day) but because it was an old property with high ceilings, there were 4 floors. The basement bedroom had its own bathroom (which had issues of its own), then there were 30 steps (not the usual 16 or so) to the entry level, where there was another bedroom (with a ‘bathroom’ with NO shower or bath!). Another 30 steps up to the living, dining, kitchen area, which had glimpses over Lake Como, then a further 30 steps up to the top bedroom/bathroom. The steps were all painted black, with no strip to indicate the edges, and no handrails, so they were dangerous too. It didn’t matter where you were in the house, you had a minimum of 30 black steps to negotiate to get anywhere else. Then all those steps outside… Our 5-night stay was going to involve a LOT of exercise!

Finally, the flat bit! We’d come down about 400 steps from the main road by this stage and took a breather once we got to this ONLY flat stretch. We still hadn’t got to the house.

From that flat bit shown in the photo above above, we still had another 60 steps to negotiate to get to the pink house you can glimpse at the bottom of the steps

The flat path from the ferry terminal area, but notice the steep steps at the end — there were 40 of these to get to the house

The 40 steep steps you had to climb when coming from the ferry terminal. Our house is the pink one of the right.

Some of the steps from the ferry terminal area up to the municipal offices—long, sloping steps, with low risers, perfect for losing luggage on!

Bar Italia in Torno gives you a decent plate of free nibblies with your drinks order! We weren’t expecting that but got it each time we had a drink there; one of the other bars we went to did the same, so it might be a Torno thing, or even an Italian thing