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Friends at Lake Como

Heaven On Earth Tour 2018 | Lake Como, Italy | Day 11

 

“My job is to awaken the soul into the soul realm, so you can have heaven while you’re on earth.” John-Roger, DSS.

 

Lake Como, Italy | Day 11 | September 25

The morning begins with a boat ride to Villa de Balbianello which overlooks Lake Como. It is located on the western shore of Lake Como and is famous for its elaborate terraced gardens. Originally this property was a Franciscan monastery that had once existed on the tip of the peninsula since the 13th century. In 1787 the monastery was purchased and converted into a villa. During the centuries the villa changed many hands. It is now a beautiful visitors site for over 100,000 people per year.

As we reach the Villa we are lovingly guided on a tour of the extensive grounds and interior rooms. It takes approximately an hour to walk through the entire villa which reveals how grand this property is and the full tour can take up to two hours or more.

After touring the Villa we have all worked up our appetites for lunch. We board the boat and head to the Comacina Island to have lunch at the Locanda restaurant. Upon arrival, we are greeted with a warm welcome by the “Oste” (old-fashioned word for “pub owner”), Benvenuto Puricelli. Benvenuto was born in Sala Comacina, in a small village, you can see from the island. Benvenuto worked all over the world as a chef and settled down at this island performing the fire ritual that the English writer, Francis Dale, wrote about to undo the mysterious curse that was cast upon the island by Vidulfo, Bishop of Como in 1169. The island is a unique experience of Lake Como. The scenery is remarkable in the midst of an ancient setting on the shores of Spurano, the picturesque fisherman’s house and the small Romanesque style church of St. Giacomo. A few steps away from the church is a bell tower with Santa Maria Maddalena. The history is rich and amazing remains of the past that exist here. We have a spectacular lunch of tomatoes with olive oil, wood grilled salmon, or as the serves lovingly named it “salmon trout”, iron pot chicken with salad, parmigiano and reggiano cheese, dessert with coffee to follow.

Following this fantastic lunch, we enjoy riding in the boat again, to view more of Lake Como on our way to Bellagio. Bellagio is a village on Lake Como. It is known for its cobblestone streets, elegant buildings and Villa Serbelloni Park, an 18th-century terraced garden with lake views. Nearby is the Tower of the Arts, a venue for exhibitions and performances, and the Romanesque San Giacomo Church. Close to rocky Loppia Beach, the Museum of Navigational Instruments displays sundials and compasses.

The rest of the day is on our own, and many explore the massive grounds of the hotel, take in a spa, massage or just enjoy the infinity pool which overlooks Lake Como.

Another Heaven on Earth Day!

In Loving Service,
Love and Light Julie

 

Touring Videos Coming Soon!


 
 
 

Touring Photos by David Sand


 
Scroll down to the bottom to read David Sand’s Day 11 travalogue.
 

 

Join Us in Planting Light Columns wherever you are and Light up the World together.

Participate in Planting Light columns with us. The map that shows the dates of where we will be on the tour for visualizing Light Columns.

 

From David Sand on Day 11:

We’ve been in Tremezzo by Lake Como, and nearby towns, for a few days. The beauty is extraordinary, and what’s even more extraordinary is how any kind of development that would be inharmonious with the environment has been prevented. No high-rises, billboards, souvenir stands, etc. In some spots, like Bellagio across the lake, it’s crowded with tourists, but that’s about the only limit on this perfect rapport between the manmade and the natural. Even the towns we visited in Switzerland had more big-name modern stores and clever exploitation of tourist money, but this area around Lake Como has hotels, restaurants, cafes, residential areas and not much else to remind you of the modern world. Ferries connect the towns around the lake, and the landscape is a drier version of Pacific islands like Hawaii, with mountains coming straight down to the water. There are palm trees and a Mediterranean climate.

Heaven on earth is a good way to describe it, and I realize how apt that title is for the trip. The locals seem relaxed and strangely un-neurotic for people living on earth in 2018. And un-plugged-in. I see fewer cell phones than usual. It’s like going back in time twenty years—or maybe even fifty. That energy extends to the hotel staff, who are uncommonly solicitous in a maternal kind of way—and to our MSIA staff, and our group. There’s a remarkable sense of oneness, ease and grace. Things flow in a way that’s probably less pressured than any MSIA trip I’ve been on.

What felt to me like disorder after our arrival from Switzerland now seems like a higher and less overt natural order that doesn’t require the interference of human rules and patterns. The weather is warm and sunny, and it feels like time is melted into a sweet syrup that conforms to events rather than the other way around, accompanied by some slow inner melody that guides people’s movements. There’s a remarkable absence of any impulse towards punishment in the people I encounter. They express frustration openly when things don’t go their way, but it seems to come from a spontaneous emotion rather than a calculated system of ideas about how things should be. Mistakes don’t create much upset, as there’s no predetermined plan that’s being upended, fewer expectations, and less anxiety. There are traditions about food and lifestyle, but they seem maternal rather than paternal—organized for comfort, pleasure, nurturing, health and security rather than some sort of battle between heaven and earth, or between the body and the spirit.

John’s sharings in the evenings, sprinkled with J-R audio excerpts played by Phil Danza, are a very smart move. They’re a re-filling of the gas tank after our movement out into the world, a circling back to center after the day’s sliding towards the circumference. I’m still entertaining the possibility that I, or all of us, have died and gone to a timeless heavenly world, and I won’t know for sure until I get back home. Or maybe I’ll just stay here and make this home and then I’ll never have to find out.

3 thoughts on “Heaven On Earth Tour 2018 | Lake Como, Italy | Day 11”

  1. Loving Energy —Tuttu Bene! Energia d’amore, Felice di vedere questi meravigliosi e gioiosi miri MSIA, Dio ti benedica, ti amo, la pace sia ferma!

  2. Dear David, Julie and all aboard the Heaven on Earth gliding express, I love the essence in your words David. I am finding more and more of wanting to stay around Lake Como. When I arrive here my heart starts to sing. It was so wonderful to join you all for a short while, for J-R’s birthday and bathe in the Traveler’s Loving shared between us.

  3. How blessed you all are be in such an exquisite piece of Earth heaven. It couldn’t be a more perfect time, as things here in the U.S.–media blasted–are in a bit of a hub-bub! So here we’re challenged to strengthen our focus on the heavens within. Ciao for now!

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