Stepping Out of the Comfort Zone

I’ve been trying to lose that “five . . . ten . . . seven” extra pounds for about four years now. Some kind of workout and yoga almost every day, alternating arm and leg strength-training days, walks and bike rides. Watching calories and eating nutritiously. Then the morning scale time comes and the same response- “C’mon, seriously?”

It’s just gotten so hard! Unless, you are living in Nesso, Italy. Ladies and gentlemen, I finally hit that target number, and it’s all due to the billions of steps one does to get anywhere. Well maybe not entirely. I think it’s also due to the nature of the food, which is all fresh, no preservatives, nothing but the real deal. But the steps . . . definitely the steps.

There are 90 steps to go from what one would call the driveway down to our villa on the lake. That’s the thing we didn’t really think about- if you want to be on the lake, and the lake is at the bottom of a bunch of giant mountains, well . . . you have to walk down pretty far to get there. I will add “worth it” but the steps are a reality.

Here's the climb to JUST GET TO THE DRIVEWAY:

We call this the Veranda turn, named for the villa above us - it's when we always start sucking air.

When we first arrived here, we had to immediately accept our home turf step situation, as we had to get food. We decided to begin exploration of our little town in search of an open market.

The open part is important, as we quickly discovered most businesses and restaurants close sometime between noon and four, and the exact hours are chosen for what suits them best. For example, you can’t just assume they are closed between noon and 2; it can just as easily be between 1 and 3. And even if the posted hours say 12-2, that doesn’t mean that they will open at 2. It might be 3. They might be closed all day for some unknown reason. We learned all that the hard way, by the way.

In any case, we immediately found out that Nesso is a series of beautiful stairs and old stone paths; a constant mix of going up or going down. The first two days were eye-opening and quad/glute productive. Suffice to say we slept well. During that time, I also wondered many times if I would be able to do this for three months. The third day, I didn’t think about it as much, and it didn’t seem quite that overwhelming, and by the end of week one, we felt not only we COULD do this for three months, but it was going to be good for us. Don’t get me wrong- we still aggressively huffed and puffed, but we didn’t think about it as much.

Since then, we’ve climbed pretty much all over Nesso, and many other spots around Lago di Como. Steps are a way of life here. Many of them tip down at a considerable angle, which is great for efficient rainwater displacement, and not bad for going up, but killer for going down.

I thought you might like to see some of the steps we’ve encountered. My favorite male model is featured. All of these pictures are of Nesso, and only the stairs! Not only are they beautiful (to look at, not necessarily to travel on,) but they are a good way to see what our home away from home looks like. After all, steps are synonymous with most of Italy, and iconic in Nesso. So we better get used to it! And when we get back to the US, we better find us some steps!

Ending with my favorite stair picture. So pretty you don't notice the climb . . . probably.