Another walk by Lake Como

I'm jumping back in time to my June visit to Como with this post.
Around Lake Como it's easy to get around with public transport. Trains, buses and ferries provide a network which I've relied on to get my groups to and from their walks. Gravedona has been my base for these holidays and the C10 bus, which runs along the western shore of the lake, between Colico and Como, via a terminus at Menaggio, is indispensable.
(I've come to really appreciate and even enjoy bus services in Italy. They're driven by professional drivers who seem proud of their status in contrast to the sense I've sometimes had of their English counterparts. I've encountered flamboyant and colourful Italian bus drivers as well as some grumpy ones but they have a pride and assuredness in their driving and their buses - one feels driven by someone with ownership whereas in the UK you're driven by a corporate company.)
In mid June my group and I took the C10 from Gravedona to Menaggio, switched to the C12 towards Lugano and got off after just a few minutes in Croce. Croce lies 200m higher than Lake Como so we'd saved ourselves 200m of uphill before starting our walk, to Tremezzo via Monti di Nava.

Uphill, grateful for the shade

The walk begins immediately uphill and we chose the zig-zag road in places over the overgrown and fiercely steep footpath. The road is easily graded by comparison and carries only the occasional car heading for the golf course. Our route leaves the tarmac after 150m vertical height gain and takes a track which continues to wind cleverly uphill through the steep woodland. Most of the ascent is in the north facing woods, which is a boon on hot sunny days. There are occasional clearances where it is possible to pause and look down on Croce a few hundred metres below.
Eventually the slopes seem to relent a little, coinciding with a change to beech trees, their grey trunks as columns to a dense canopy, leaf litter covering the open ground beneath and between them. This is now quickly followed by the reaching of a level saddle and a small open meadow cleared from the forest. The first climb is done and you're at around 800m asl (above sea level).

Eyes on the path, not the view

Crossing over the saddle leads to a short descent and another meadow sloping dramatically down the the south and the first sight of a view which is to open up and grow wider for the next half hour. You pass a couple of small inaccessible holiday chalets and climb again, dramatically between cliffs. This is no place for anyone not sure-footed. The path is easy but narrow and a fall from the path would not have a happy ending. With a reminder not to walk and look at the view at the same time we made our way via a series of zig-zags to reach a pylon and the high point of the walk.
The view from here is immense. You can look southwards into the two southern legs of Lake Como over the town of Bellagio and you can look northwards up towards the Sondrio valley. The lake, far below is surrounded by mountains, their steep slopes rising directly from the shore.

From Monti di Nava high above Lake Como and Bellagio

A tight bend for a vehicle but don't worry - that guard rail makes you feel secure!?

The descent goes via a few chalets at Nava and down a narrow 'road', occasionally concreted and a hairpin bend which you cannot imagine driving, except that there are a number of iron posts concreted in at the edge - why put them here if not to provide a barrier for vehicles against the drop!?
The Ridge below widens and limestone juts through the earth - flowers are everywhere.

Jan, Penny and Clive descending

 The path descends on the left side of the broad ridge in a series of steep zig-zags to reach the farmland below, from which a short walk on tarmac brings you to the lakeside. In the heat the water of Lake Como is extremely inviting for feet, swollen and bruised on the descent.

Clive, like King Canute