Packing your bag, plotting out a route, planning the travel time, it felt good to do those things again. The destination was Lake Como in Northern Italy, where the Alps slowly give way to the plains of Lombardy. I wanted to take it slow and I decided to bring my Leica SL and two Voigtlanders, the 21mm F1.4 and the 50mm F2 APO. I had some time off and taking a deliberate approach to capturing this journey felt like the right thing to do on this trip.
I've written about the 21mm before in this post, and I still like it very much. The combination with the 50mm APO (first impressions here) is great and covers a lot of ground. Both lenses are so incredibly well made that I still have no regrets whatsoever of getting rid if my Leica lenses to use on my SL. I simply cannot see what would justify spending the premium over the Voigtlanders anymore. No lens is perfect, and neither are these but they are so good that they can go well beyond my skills as an amateur photographer. Nowhere did I feel that I needed better glass.
Lake Como and its surroundings are stunning. It deserves so much more than just being 'the place where George Clooney has a house', although this is the first thing pretty much everyone has said when I told them we were spending some time here. The lake itself with it's three arms is beautiful and there are stunning little towns dotted everywhere on the coast.
If you move inland a bit, you will see that this is still very much in the Alps. Beautiful mountains that peak well over 2000 meters are everywhere and some have snowed caps that contrast with the green from the dense trees that cover most of the slopes. The roads are not always in good shape but the discomfort is more than worth it as the views are stunning.
The weather had an interesting pattern. It was hot during the day on most days but late in the afternoon, clouds would roll in and they would bring rain and thunder almost every evening. This helped cool down the evening air a bit which was welcome and it also offered quite a spectacle, seeing the lightning striking down on the cloud covered peaks.
This trip, the first in a long time, confirmed again that the Leica SL matched with these Voigtlanders is an excellent setup.
More photos in the gallery below.