Trattoria Lamarta

Map of the drive made (click here to enlarge)

I have a deep enough knowledge of Lake Como, especially, since i live there, on the side of Lecco (the setting of the famous novel by Alessandro Manzoni).
In my childhood i spent a lot of summers at Lake Maggiore, and so, somehow, i know that too.
Lake Garda, instead, was still partially unknown. Yes, i had been near to there, i visited some villages in the southern coast like Sirmione, Desenzano, Peschiera. But, although partially in my region, i have never done a thorough visit.
And so, during the weekend 24th to 26th july, R, myself, Maddie and Mr. Bentley begun to remedy this serious gap with a short holiday at Gargnano.
Of course, two days is not enough to explore the subject, but enough to have an idea about how to plan a longer holiday, not only at the lake, but also in the surrounding mountains.
During those days that area was really hot, so, in order to escape from the heat, and also for the curiosity of exploring the surrounding mountains and finding destinations for any interesting hiking paths for future excursions, on saturday evening we decided to drive into an internal road we found on the map.
We were pleasantly surprised by the truly spectacular scenery on a deserted road (looks so far from the busy tourist destinations of lake Garda!). We drove on hairpin bends rolled around canyons and gorges, coasting also the beautiful little artificial lake Valvestino and crossing it on breathtaking bridges.

The road reaches Lake Idro. To avoid also the touristic crowd of this last one, we went a little over, at Treviso Bresciano. That day we decided not to have dinner because a few hours earlier we had a very big lunch. But at that late hour in the night we were beginning to feel the need of a snack. Then the talented fingers of R began to thumb through the pages of the SlowFood guide, finding a good restaurant just right there, in the hamlet Vico. Trattoria Lamarta.
Here we were warmly welcomed, even though they were almost closing (after nine in the evening, there was no longer anybody). We ordered half a liter of red wine and a plate of cured meat of their production, really delicious. Particularly good were their lardo and prosciutto. The latter, then, I was informed that that was not prosciutto, but cured pork rib.
We chatted for a long time with the nice lady. In particular I was amazed how such a nice restaurant could survive in a place so isolated that it was empty already at nine on Saturday night.
The lady told us how, after three generations, the restaurant is still run. Nothing much has changed. Meals are all prepared from their own produced ingredients (and if they are all like those cured meats, it's worth another visit!). In particular they grow pigs and vegetables, but they also have other animals. The menu can differ from day to day but goes according to season, with no choice allowed. One can eat what is cooked that day, which in fact depends upon the butchered animals and the harvested seasonal vegetables. The lady suggests to call before if one wants to know what will be served for dinner or lunch.

We paid 15 euros. Obviously without any receipt. Given the familiar welcome we received from the lady and her kindness keeping open only for us, i didn't feel like demanding it, so it's disappointing to include also this business in my list of tax evaders.

Trattoria Lamarta
via Tito Speri, 56
Localita' Vico
25070, Treviso Bresciano (BS)
Small pets welcome only in the porch outside.

This blog is against tax dodging

I am a subordinate employee.
And so, regarding income taxes, i pay them.
I have a headache to fill out the modello 730 (the italian tax form) because I want the deductions allowed for having a home loan, and not lose them by having my taxes automatically computed. This operation is not that difficult but, as usual clumsy in bureaucratic stuff, i end up making some errors, that are regularly corrected by the kind girls at the CAAF office (the syndacate section charged to check validity of official documents).
I swear that any error is absolutely unintentional. It wouldn't make any sense in fact to try to be sneaky: the document to attach as a proof of its accuracy is the CUD (a document issued by the employer), and the numbers written on the two forms must be the same.

To tell the truth the accuracy of the data written on the 730 is immediately verifiable only for the incomes for subordinate employment. For instance, i could give private lessons of ancient Greek language, arrange small electricity works, canary petsitting, or teach hang gliding, with regular remuneration, and then i could avoid to declare it as an income. But i don't do any of those activities, believe me.

For sure i don't have the same solidarity feeling as Artemisia, who would like to pay more taxes. Instead i would prefer to pay less. But i am proud to be able to say that i never evade taxes and i am happy to pay till the last penny what is owed, to give my contribution to the community.
I'd only like that also the other members of the same community do the same.
First of all for a social reason. Since the social services are financed by the State through tax revenue, tax evasion means that services are not paid enough (and so performed with worse quality) or, otherwise, that the pressure of taxation increases (obviously for non-evaders).
Moreover, I cannot find a valid reason why, for the same income, whoever is honest will have less money, since he must provide for a part to be paid in taxes.

Italian tax system doesn't allow subordinate employees to evade taxes, while it makes it easy and lightly punished for self-employers and enterpreneurs, for the simple reason that for this last ones it's more difficult to evaluate the income.
Which, of course, doesn't mean that subordinate employees are more honest than the self employers. In fact i know some enterpreneurs that pay till the last cent, while a lot of subordinate employees do not evade only because they don't have the opportunity to, which it's far from a moral acquittal.

The ricevuta fiscale.

The taxation for a commercial business is computed on the base of the sales proceeds, or, in other words, the sum of the money coming from the sale of the products or services commercialized, in the period of one year.
The ricevuta fiscale [receipt for fiscal purposes] is an official document that is issued by the business that contains the total amount paid by the customer, the detail of all the products or services bought, the particulars of the business itself along with a progressive number and the date that unequivocally identify that receipt.
It is double-copied and written (by hand or automatically, in the form of a scontrino fiscale, by the registratore di cassa [a particular calculator/printer]). One copy is given to the customer and the other is kept by the dealer. The set of all the ricevute fiscali issued in one year is so a good enough documentation for computing the sales proceeds.

The most obvious way to evade the taxes, so, is not to issue the receipt at all, after a sale.

I don't believe that the customer should play the role of the inspector. But the receipt, that is a proof of the purchase, is the warranty that the taxes due for that good are paid, and it is a right of the consumer to control that it actually happens.
It's obvious that when a dealer does not give the receipt, in that moment he is evading his taxes. And that is a crime.
After a sale, it's normal that a dealer actually gives the good that was paid by the customer ("I'm not a cheater!"). On the other side, the customer for sure pays the good he bought ("I'm not a thief!"). I cannot understand why they feel it is allowed to pass over the receipt.

I don't know about you, but so often it happens to me that the shopkeeper "forgets" to issue the receipt.
Being that i pay my taxes, this "forgetting" irritates me so much, and when it happens, i expressly ask for a receipt. At that point they issue it, some times with an arrogant reaction. Rarely it happened that they kept refusing.
I believe that, unfortunately, the main part of consumers do not have the same "ball-breaking" nature, and at the end, for each demanded receipt, a lot of others are lost in the guilty oblivion.

I don't believe that there is a particular category of business to point the finger towards. As Maurice in his post notices, if the statistics say that the restaurants are the most impudent tax evaders, that doesn't mean that one can accuse each restaurateur to evade taxes. For example, the only one time we had dinner at Maurice's, the receipt was regularily issued. To say that the restaurant dealers are dishonest is injust towards the honest ones.

And it's just for this reason that, in my opinion, the dishonest ones should be identified. As Maurice says, "Tirate fuori i nomi e non sparate a casaccio sul mucchio" ["Quote the names and don't shoot on the mass"]. No sooner said than done. Today i start a new survey on this blog that reports the commercial business that evade the taxes. Or, atleast, that try to, when it's my turn to pay the bill. The list will appear on a proper section in the right column.

Disclaimer: I'd like to make clear that this report has nothing to do with the quality of the products.

One has to start from somewhere, and so, incidentally, it happens that the first tax evader of the list is the famous Pasticceria Vassalli, Via S. Carlo 84/86 - 25087 Salò (Brescia). R. and i entered last friday morning in the shop. We had a slice of ricotta pie, a "fruit basket" (almond-chocolate wafer filled with fruit and custard), two shakerati, two glasses of mineral water and a small pack of lemon cookies. The lady (i think she's the owner), using the registratore di cassa as a support to write on the notepad, performed the sum by hand and accepted our payment of the bill with credit card. Only after the transaction, when she was already greeting us, i demanded and obtained the receipt.

At Somana, on the Sentiero del Fiume

[The Path of the River]

June 2nd, 2009.

Little waterfall with an inviting pond

Another waterfall

After Somana (LC), up to the first hairpin bend, there's a crossing with via dell'Acqua Bianca ["White Water road"], start-point of a wonderful excursion. Here there are clear indications for homonimous Bed and Breakfast. There is also a parking lot, but it is really small, and when we arrived it was already full. Going back downhill we finally found a space for the car, adding an extra piece of hike on the asphalted road. As soon as we parked the car we met a nice old man who upon seeing our preparations (backpack, hiking boots, knee-pads, hiking sticks and waterbottle) all of the sudden asked, in a kind of teasing tone, "Where are you going at this time of the day?" (as if to say - at 11am isn't it a bit late to start an excursion?). "Eh, we wanted to go up to the waterfall!" - "Ah, the Sentiero del Fiume! That's ok, at least there should be some shade!". Actually good thing that a good part of the path is in the forest, because the sun that day, was really burning. "Be careful!" he warned, "you'll probably encounter some biscie..." [A biscia is a small, harmless grass-snake in italian country sides]. Now, Grandpa was beginning to be a little too much... "Hey, this way you'll frighten my wife!", I say, to lighten the mood, "...then she'll change her mind and she'll not be wanting to go up anymore". "Oh, well...", he smiles, "you have the sticks to chase them away!", he tries, a little clumsily, to encourage her.
To tell the truth, R. was not frightened at all. Grandpa waves wishing us a good hike. We won't meet any terrible monster (anyway, what's wrong with biscie?). Later we will laugh for his thoughtful suggestions.

Unfortunately Maddie recently broke a crossed ligament and that day she was waiting for the operation. Now she is recuperating and, even if everything will be ok, she still has to wait few months before she'll be able to hike again. Thus, this time she stayed home, and Mr. Bentley decided the same for keeping her company. Good thing, since in some points the path would have been impassable for them.

Entering via dell'Acqua Bianca you can find the first signs, with trail marker n. 15B pointing

I, climbing on a point with chains

to "Sentiero del Fiume" that, along with the red dots painted on the rocks, were a constant help to find our way. The asphalted road, after the last houses of the village, slowly descends on a carriage road. Here we met some animals (donkeys and goats) in a corral. Soon the carriage road becomes a small path and in the ups and downs, it arrives to the level of the river. Here it starts the most scenic part of the excursion, that coast the river and crosses it several times in easy fords. Here you find also some little waterfalls flowing in small ponds, so much tempting that i was almost ready to dive in.

one of the many fords

The hike, in some points, then becomes more difficult. Impossible to pass some tracts without clinging to the chains nailed to the rocks for that purpose. To tell the truth it's not that terrible an experience, if not for somebody like me that suffer for dizzy spells. Once one hangs to the chains it is pretty easy, but the cliff, in some points about a dozen meters high, was not encouraging at all.
The hardest part of the climb is when we arrived to the bottom of the wonderful waterfall Cascata di Era. The path is very steep, the top of the cascade, where path n. 15B ends up crossing with n. 15.
Going right from here, within another fifteen minutes we could go to Alpe di Era (mountain farmhouses) where there is also a small chapel. We cut this part and went back to Somana following the yellow dots along path n. 15. This part of the excursion, more flat, is much easier than the outward. This path dominates, on one side, the canyon where the river flows, and in some points it is possible to see the path 15B we covered before, much lower on the other side.

Niche at one station of the Cross

All of the sudden there is a little church with some rooms that volunteers run as a refreshment point, collecting money for the maintainance of the chapel. Thirsty, we stop by for a coke (the one-liter waterbottle has been dried up a long time before!).
After a quick visit to the cool interior of the church we restart our hike. The last part is a very long descent on irregular steps, marked at intervals by the stations of the Way of the Cross (that, going down, we cover backwards). The path terminates on the main road, at one hairpin bend after the crossing with via dell'Acqua Bianca.

The excursion, although long and hard, doesn't have insuperable difficulties, apart the small tracts with chains. The 15B is anyway labeled with a double E (Expert Excursionists). Since the river can have sudden floods, it is not advisable if there is the risk of rain. Because of the frequent fords (we got water till the ankles) it is suggested to wear waterproof hiking boots.

Outward:

Time: 2:41

Distance: 15.5km [9.63mi]

Difference of level: 591m [1939'] (1146m [3760'] uphill and 555m [1821'] downhill)

Altitude: from 343m [1125'] to 934m [3064']

Backward:

Time: 2:06

Distance: 8.16km [5.07mi]

Difference of level: -591m [-1939'] (214m [702'] uphill and 805m [2641'] downhill)

Altitude: from 934m [3064'] to 343m [1125']

GPS track of the excursion.
In red the outward on path n. 15B, in yellow the backward on n. 15.
A: parking lot; B-C: Era waterfall; D: chapel-refreshment

Cumulative statistics of the 5 excursions from the beginning of this year:

Total time: 16:31

Distance: 58.39km [36.28mi]

Difference of level: 3646m [11962']

Minimum altitude: 343m [1125']

Maximum altitude: 1550m [5085']

Eros Buratti and the art of preservation of milk

Upon exit from the shop and checking the receipt, R and i commented that the bill, after all, was less than what we expected, given the amount and quality of the purchases.
"Over here, it's well-spent!" whispered a girl with Indian or Pakistani features just moments before, with the knowing tone of one who probably

La Casera cheese shelf

is a regular customer of La Casera herself. She was responding to my witty jest that emphasized worry for an expensive bill, humor that i thought appropriate to the friendly climate of the shop.

Besides cheese and cured meats, the shop also has a little section for salt. While Eros, the storekeeper, passionately described to us the experience of tasting salt from various origins, i was thinking to the contradiction between the criteria of ecologic shopping and the purchase of a can of salt coming from Himalaya, rather than South Africa. But, come on! When will it ever happen again to be able to compare salt from Ibiza with the Hawaiian one? And so we added those two containers to our shopping bag.
I am quite ignorant in this matter. Up until now, to me salt was just salt. NaCl. It's not that sodium chloride could ever have different organoleptic peculiarities if it comes from South American mines instead of Sicilian saltworks. Eros told me that the differences in taste are not given by the chemical substance itself, but by its impurities that every kind of salt has.

Could be...
Anyway i was already fully satisfied by the more interesting subject of cheese. "Taste this last, please" goes Eros, handing me a teaspoon with some fresh goat cheese.
Delicious! so much that i asked him to add some of it to the basket. In the mean time R was involved by a woman (Eros' mother?) in buying an exquisite slice of Matera bread, displayed on a counter at the end of the shop.
Fortunately these last two purchases were made at the end, after a list of items that were already carefully prepared before, selecting from the products listed on La Casera's website. It's really difficult, in fact, to choose real-time among hundreds of available cheeses (mainly from Piedmont, but also from other Italian regions, and some foreign ones).

Cheese!

The fresh goat cheese, together with a slice of pecorino siciliano ai pistacchi di Bronte (a token gift for the large purchase) were the worthy completion of our shopping list that included three cow milk cheeses (Toma del Maccagn, Raschera semistagionata, Tella Alto Adige), one sheep (Canestrato di Castel del Monte) and one goat (Ubriaco al Traminer). Any choice we inquired about was followed by a qualified comment from Eros.
As a choice criterium we took into account the difficulty of being able to find those cheeses (a more famous pecorino di Pienza, for example, is easy to find also in the regular shopping centers).

"You're in the right place" answered Eros, amused, showing up from the back-shop when, to break the ice, right in front of the display shelves, i said "Goodmorning, by chance do you have cheese over here?"
A moment before, in front of the shop window, i dwelt upon the thought of the many surprising forms developed in the centuries of the need to preserve the milk nutritive properties.

Indeed we were really in the right place.

---

In the picture of the cheese plate, starting from the yellow one on the top, clockwise: Bagoss (cow milk, Lombardy), Ubriaco al Traminer (goat, Veneto), Canestrato di Castel del Monte - presidio SlowFood (sheep, Abruzzo), Pecorino siciliano DOP ai pistacchi di Bronte (sheep, Sicily), Toma del Maccagn - presidio SlowFood (cow, Piedmont), goat fresh cheese (Piedmont), Graukase (cow, Alto Adige), Vezzena - presidio SlowFood (cow, Trentino), Raschera semistagionata DOP (cow, Piedmont). In the center, Tella Alto Adige (cow).
Bagoss was bought in a grocery shop, Graukase and Vezzena at the Christmas markets in Merano (Trentino Alto Adige), the others are all from Eros' shop.

La Casera
Piazza Ranzoni, 19
28921 Verbania Intra
http://www.formaggidieros.it

Mount Tesoro

Mr. Bentley

view along the path

There it goes another weekend as a single guy (R. went for a period to her homeland). Saturday it was a cloudy day, and i used it to make some shopping and some works in the house, which maybe i will tell you about in another post. Ah, and i also planned some other works for the day after.
Yesterday morning i woke up early enough and, as a first thing, i looked out of the window. It was still a little dark, but i could see the sky completely clear, in the crisp air. I decided for a change of program, and all of the sudden i called a family meeting.
"Pack mates, did you see what a beautiful day? What about a hike up to the mountains?" - Mr. Bentley started jumping enthusiastically left and right, and with his baritone voice: "Oh yes, Fajah..." (Mr. Bentley and Maddie call me "Fajah" because... Well, let's not start with digressions... maybe i will tell you about this story another time). "Oh yes, Fajah, let's go hiking, you and me, and leave home the stupid girls. We are boys and we always gotta stick together. Then we could also stop for a beer someplace..." (Mr. Bentley is a little male-chauvinist, actually...) Maddie instead doesn't take me seriously, and, irritatedly swinging her eyes goes: "You are really dumb, Mr. Bentley, Fajah is not serious... Majah is not here, and everybody knows you stupid boys give up soon for laziness and you stay all day with your butts on the couch and a beer can in your hands watching the soccer match." (Majah, obviously, is R.).

Maddie at the peak of the mountain

So i took the floor to clarify. "No, no, i am very serious" i reassured Maddie, who begun to wag her tail: "Fo... fo... for really?!?" "For really!" I tell her, and then, to Mr. Bentley: "we ALL go to make a hike... as for the beer, maybe we can speak about it later". Mr. Bentley, a little deluded, but still excited for the hike: "Mmmmh... mmmmh... stupid girls... okay, Fajah"

So, i decide to give up with the home works, backpack on my shoulders, full water bottle, hiking boots, hiking sticks, GPS and photo camera (Mr. Bentley and Maddie, who go much lighter, always look to me with curiosity in this preparatory stage), and go, for a short excursion, just ten minutes by car from home.

Olginate and Garlate lakes
(bulges of the Como lake, at south of Lecco)

With R. and Maddie (Mr. Bentley was not born yet!) i already made this excursion in a snowy day, following then for a much longer distance on a path that, from south, approaches the southern slope of mount Resegone. This time, with the pack, we were happy with the ascent till the little chapel at the top of Mount Tesoro. In my memory the path was longer, maybe the snow did make it much more difficult.
Walking in the snow is really very nice, and it gives a strong sense of silence and peace. In the fall, instead, colors are really touching, from deep green to yellow and red of the leaves, to the brown of the undergrowth, in contrast to the limpid blue of the sky. This path, following the ridge, has views both on the Adda river valley of Lecco, on one side, and Orobie Alps of Bergamo on the other.

It is impossible get lost. The car can be parked in a little lot next to the hairpin bend (shown on the map). The path to take is well marked with arrows to "Monte Tesoro". After a couple of hundreds yards there is a fork on a mule path. This is the only tricky point (in fact we took the wrong way, ending up at a private property). A left must be taken, but just after the fork there is the start point of the path, a little hidden, towards right. The path is partially in the woods, partially on the rocks, til a first peak, where there is the stick for a flag, then it goes down for few feet and then up again till a higher peak with the little chapel of the Alpine soldiers, the war memorial, a little cemetery and a little heliport for the alpine aids. Time for some photos and back at once by the same way.
At noon we were already back home, and in the afternoon i also managed to make all the works i planned. Efficient eh?

other views of the path

• Total time: 1:42 (about half an hour of walk uphill and twenty minutes downhill plus the rest break)
• Covered distance: 3.94km [2.45mi] (round trip)
• Difference of level: 115m [377feet] (214m [702feet] uphill, 99m [325feet] downhill)
• Altitude: from 1301m [4268feet] to 1416m [4646feet]

GPS track
A: parking at the hairpin bend; B: peack of Mount Tesoro; C: Olginate lake; D: Garlate lake

Strada Régia

View on the lake

Here is another path we hiked some times ago.
On one side i liked it a lot, because it is in the forest and it offest here and there some suggestive lookouts on the Lake of Come (of the best part of it!).
On the other side i don't like the fact that it can be very busy. We didn't actually found a big lot of people, but it is clear that the path, also for the easyness, it is very popular.
We had tried it already some months before, but for some back-ache of mine, we gave up.

Como funicolar railway station can be easily reached by train. We went by car. A suggestion is to leave the car at the parking next to the "Fontanone" (it's a big pitoresque fountain). The fee for that parking is much less than the other parkings of the area (with few euros one can leave the car for the whole day).
It is forbidden, in Brunate municipality, to drive on SUV cars, but i would suggest not to go even with small cars. The roads are very narrow, but the main problem is the parking.
The funicular consists of two wagons that leave contemporarily one from Brunate and the other from Como, at every hours and halves. Their path is, for both of the wagons, on the same rail, which double in the middle to allow them to cross each other.

Pietra Pendula

When arrived to Brunate you walk on the road that, from the steps of the station, goes towards right. After few hundreds yards, after a left turn well signed, you arrive to the ground and finally, after coasting it, there is the start point of the hiking path named "Strada Regia" (="Royal Path").
The path is well kept by the local volunteer service and it doesn't have any big difficulties. It is almost completely downhill, and anyway the slope is never too steep, but it is very long. On the left of the path, from Brunate all the way to Montepiatto, you can enjoy a lot of views on the lake.
About at the half to the path there is a little church, where some benches offer a good occasion for a break.
Once reached Montepiatto follow the indications for the Church, which little square looks like a balcony, hundreds of feet on the lake. All around the square there is a little path to Pietra Pendula, a weird rock that looks like a contest to the gravity forces.
At Montepiatto it begins the descent, kind of steep (and so a little hard), even if on a path well settled with steps. This path takes you to the town of Torno, where you can go back to Como by bus or by boat. We preferred this last option, really more suggestive. The boat stops about every half an hour (the exact time schedule can also be found at the funicular station) and, from Torno, after a couple of stops, you reach Como pier, not far from the funicolar station.

More infos on this path at R's blog

• Time taken: 4:11 (except the boat ride).
• Difference of level (from Brunate to the lake): 581m [1906feet] (the lake is at 143m [469feet] altitude above sea level)
• Covered distance: 28.3km [17.6mi] (excluded the boat ride).

GPS track:
in green the part on the funicolar, in read the hike, in yellow the navigation.
A: Como funicolar station; B: Brunate funicolar station; C: "Strada Regia" path start point; D: Chapel for the break; E: Montepiatto church; F: Pietra Pendula; G: Start of the last steep descent; H: Torno pier; I: Como pier