A Walk from Varenna

After visiting all the other towns by ferry I ended up with a page of quick ink sketches that I did when the ferry was pulling into some of the other towns. This went across a double page in my sketchbook.

Here are a few closeups.

I decided to stay on our side of the lake for a change. Every morning I would walk from our apartment to the very edge of the next town that was about a mile away. I knew from my research that the town, Fiumelatte has "the shortest river in Itlay." Apparently it runs at certain times of the year and then dries up. I didn't know if it was running or not, but I decided to make an extra trip there to check. When I got to this spot I thought I had found the river....

but I decided to keep on walking and take more photos.

And then I heard this roaring noise and went a little further to find this. It was so noisy your couldn't hear anything else. It was right along the road and went under the road into the lake. 

I wanted to sketch it, but there was no room at all to sit down, so I sketched it standing up.

I walked a bit and found this great view back to Varenna that I wanted to paint. I thought a panoramic watercolor paper would be best. As I was sketching I kept getting lost in the buildings so I decided it would be best to start on the left and sketch a building or two and paint them as I went along. The color made it easier to figure out where I was in the view. I did most of the painting that day but completed it the following day.

Here are a few more photos from Fiumelatte.

I had been gone from the apt for quite a while and I knew it was a long walk back...and I was hungry and was ready for a bit of vino.  I will continue tomorrow.