Italy
Lake Como
The Alps fall straight into 400 m of water, with three centuries of villa gardens terraced along the edge.
Lake Como is an inverted-Y of glacial water in Lombardy, over 400 m deep in places, where the southern Alps drop straight into the shoreline and every village is stacked on whatever ledge it could find. Romans holidayed here, the Grand Tour turned the western shore into a chain of ornamental gardens, and the boats that link the villages still matter more than the roads. It rewards a slow trip: mornings on the water, afternoons in a garden or on an old mule track above the shore.
Suggested stay
3–5 days
Language
Italian
Currency
EUR
Timezone
UTC+2
Why you'll love Lake Como
The water Ferries do the work of roads here, so moving between villages means standing on a deck watching cliffs, campaniles and villa gates slide past.
The gardens Three centuries of villa grounds sit open to visitors, terraced between the shore and the rock, with camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons carrying the spring.
Straight up from the shore The mountains start at the waterline, so a stepped lane out of almost any village puts you on a mule track with the whole lake underneath inside an hour.
The table Dried and grilled lake fish, perch risotto, buttery mountain polenta and the terraced red wines of the valley behind - it eats like the Alps and Lombardy at once.
Best time to visit
Mar
14-14° days
45.940° N, 9.149° E
UTC+2 · Europe/Rome
whenywhere contains ads and partner links that we think are helpful and that earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Weather & when to go to Lake Como
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Mar
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Lake Como
No month here is a write-off, but few are flawless: high summer is humid and hazy with shoulder-to-shoulder ferry queues, late spring and autumn bring the heaviest rain, and much of winter is grey and half-shut, with garden gates closed and boat timetables thinned. Early spring is the one stretch that rates outright great - clear air off the mountains, mild days, the gardens just opening and the crowds still weeks off.
Top things to do in Lake Como
-
Villa del Balbianello - the terraced villa on the Lenno peninsula
scenic history ⭐ Highly recommendedAn eighteenth-century cardinal's retreat built over a Franciscan monastery on a wooded spit that juts into the lake, with an open loggia on the crown and clipped plane trees growing over the balustrades. Its last owner was the explorer who led Italy's first Everest expedition, and his collection of maps, sledges and Asian art is still in the rooms. Most people arrive by boat from Lenno or walk the shore path around the headland.
-
The mid-lake ferry triangle - Bellagio, Varenna and Menaggio by boat
scenic ⭐ Highly recommendedThe three villages sit at the point where the lake's two southern arms split, and the boats between them run all day, including a car ferry. The crossing is the attraction as much as the destinations: fifteen minutes of open water with the mountains stacked away up the northern basin. Buy the hop and you can do all three in a day without ever touching the shore roads.
-
Villa Carlotta - the botanic garden and sculpture rooms at Tremezzo
culture arts history 👍 PopularA Baroque merchant's villa handed on as a wedding present to a Prussian princess, with terraced gardens climbing the hillside behind it into bamboo, tree ferns and a famous stand of azaleas and rhododendrons that peaks in spring. Inside are Neoclassical marbles including a Cupid and Psyche after Canova. It is the easiest of the great gardens to reach, sitting right on the western shore road with its own boat pier.
-
Como-Brunate funicular - ride the cliff railway to the balcony above the city
scenic 👍 PopularA Victorian-era funicular hauls up the wooded slope from the Como lakefront to the village of Brunate in a few minutes, ending on a terrace that looks straight down the first arm of the lake. From the top a signed path continues up to a lighthouse built for Alessandro Volta, and ridge walks run on from there towards the Triangolo Lariano.
-
Villa Melzi - walk Bellagio's shoreline garden under the plane trees
scenic history 👍 PopularLaid out for one of Napoleon's Italian statesmen, the grounds run flat along the water south of Bellagio: an avenue of planes, a Japanese pond garden, a small Moorish pavilion at the edge of the lake and Egyptian sculpture set among the lawns. Liszt worked here. Pair it with the stepped alleys climbing behind Bellagio's waterfront, which is the postcard everyone comes for.
-
Como Cathedral - a Gothic front bolted to a Renaissance body and a Baroque dome
history culture artsWork started in 1396 and finished nearly three and a half centuries later, so the building reads as a walk through Italian architecture from one end to the other, ending under Juvarra's dome. The oddest detail is on the facade: the two Plinys, both pagans and both local sons, sit in niches flanking the main door. The silk-trade streets and the lakefront Volta temple are a few minutes away.
-
Greenway del Lago di Como - walk the old shore road from Colonno to Griante
hiking scenicRoughly ten kilometres of cobbled lanes, mule tracks and lakeside promenade strung together along the western shore, passing through half a dozen villages, under villa walls and past the Isola Comacina channel. It is flat enough for an easy half day, waymarked throughout, and buses and boats let you start or stop anywhere along it.
-
Sentiero del Viandante - the medieval road along the eastern shore
hiking scenicThe old wayfarers' route runs high above the water from Abbadia Lariana north towards Colico, through chestnut woods, terraces and hamlets, with the Bellagio headland opposite for most of it. It splits neatly into day stages because the lakeside railway shadows it the whole way, so you can walk one section and train back.
-
Villa Monastero - Varenna's ribbon garden along the water
history scenicA Cistercian convent turned lakeside house, with a narrow botanical garden stretching along the shore past citrus, cypress, palms and stone urns to a small classical pavilion. The house museum keeps its heavily decorated period rooms, and the conference hall upstairs is where Enrico Fermi gave his last lectures at a physics summer school here.
-
Isola Comacina - the lake's only island, and its ruins
history off beaten pathA wooded hump offshore from Ossuccio that was the lake's stronghold until Como destroyed it in the twelfth century and forbade rebuilding. What is left is excavated church foundations, a small Romanesque chapel and a handful of modernist artists' houses among the trees. A short shuttle boat runs across from the western shore.
-
Sacro Monte di Ossuccio - the chapel path above the western shore
history hikingFourteen frescoed and statue-filled chapels climb a cobbled pilgrim path through olive terraces from the shore to a hilltop sanctuary, part of the UNESCO-listed group of northern Italian sacred mountains. The walk is short and steep, and the views back down over the Comacina channel are the reason to do it even without the theology.
-
Abbazia di Piona - the Romanesque cloister at the top of the lake
history off beaten pathA Cluniac priory on a low peninsula near Colico, with a twelfth-century church and an irregular cloister whose carved capitals are all slightly different. Monks still live here and sell the herbal liqueurs they distil. The setting - flat water, reed beds and the northern mountains - is completely unlike the villa shore further south.
-
Domaso and Gera Lario - sail, windsurf and kite the afternoon wind
adventure nature wildlifeThe wide, shallow northern end of the lake catches two reliable thermal winds, the Tivano off the mountains in the morning and the Breva up the lake in the afternoon, which is why the sailing schools and board rental cluster around Domaso, Gera Lario and Colico rather than the villa shore.
-
Lariano cooking - missoltini, perch risotto and polenta uncia
foodThe lake's own dishes are unfussy and worth seeking out: missoltini, shad sun-dried and pressed in tins then grilled and dressed with vinegar; risotto with fillets of perch fried in butter and sage; and polenta uncia, the mountain version bound with butter and cheese. The reds from the terraced Valtellina slopes behind the lake are the standard pairing.
Best areas to stay in Lake Como
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Bellagio
First-time visitors $$$Stepped lanes on the mid-lake point
Explore hotels in Bellagio →
Varenna
Train travellers $$Pastel fishing village on the eastern shore
Explore hotels in Varenna →
Menaggio
Families and walkers $$Practical western-shore town with a promenade
Explore hotels in Menaggio →
Tremezzina (Tremezzo, Lenno and Cadenabbia)
Garden visitors $$$Villa and garden strip facing Bellagio
Explore hotels in Tremezzina (Tremezzo, Lenno and Cadenabbia) →
Como
City comforts $$Working silk city at the southern tip
Explore hotels in Como →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Lake Como
Getting to & around Lake Como
Getting there
Fly into Milan Malpensa and take the direct coach to Como in about an hour, or train from Milano Centrale up the eastern shore to Varenna and switch to a boat.
Flight
Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP)
Malpensa sits roughly an hour west of the lake's southern tip. A direct airport coach runs to Como's Piazza Matteotti, or the airport train reaches Saronno for a change onto the Como Lago line. If you are heading mid-lake instead, ride into Milan and take a Tirano-line train from Milano Centrale to Varenna-Esino in about an hour, with the ferry pier a short walk downhill. Milan Linate and Bergamo Orio al Serio both work too, each via Milan.
Train
Varenna-Esino
Trains from Milano Centrale towards Sondrio and Tirano run up the eastern shore in about an hour and stop above the village, a few minutes' walk from the ferry pier. The same line serves Lecco, Bellano and Colico.
Train
Como San Giovanni
Fast trains from Milano Centrale take well under an hour, and the same line continues north into Switzerland via Chiasso and Lugano. Como Lago, served from Milano Cadorna, is the slower line but lands right on the waterfront.
Coach
Como, Piazza Matteotti
Direct airport coaches from Malpensa terminate here, and regional buses fan out from the same square along both shores.
Drive
A9 autostrada to Como
Under an hour from Milan on the motorway, but the shore roads beyond are narrow, slow and busy, most villages restrict traffic in their centres and parking is genuinely scarce in season.
Getting around
Ferry
Slow boats and faster hydrofoils link the shore villages; service is densest around the mid-lake triangle and thins out towards the northern end and in winter.
TBC
Car ferry
The mid-lake car ferry shuttles between Varenna, Bellagio, Menaggio and Cadenabbia, and is the only way to cross with a vehicle.
TBC
Train
The eastern shore has a railway from Lecco to Colico with stations in most villages; the western shore has none, so boats and buses do that work.
TBC
Bus
Regional buses run both shore roads out of Como and connect Menaggio to Lugano across the Swiss border. They are scenic and slow.
TBC
Funicular
The Como to Brunate line climbs to the ridge above the city in a few minutes and runs late into the evening.
TBC
Walk
Villages are small, steep and largely stepped, and shore paths such as the Greenway link several of them on the western side.
Free
Day trips from Lake Como
Milan
Full dayCathedral and design city
The Duomo's roof terraces, the Galleria, La Scala and Leonardo's Last Supper are all within a short walk of each other, and the Navigli canals fill up in the evening. Trains run frequently enough from both the eastern shore and Como that this works either as a day out or as a stopover on the way in.
Getting there
train
About 1 hr by train from Varenna or Como
Lugano
Full daySwiss lake city
A different country and a noticeably different mood: a palm-lined promenade, an arcaded old town, a serious art museum on the waterfront and funiculars up Monte Bre and San Salvatore for the view back over the lakes. Bring a passport or ID card even though the crossing is usually waved through.
Getting there
bus | train
About 1 hr by bus from Menaggio, or by train from Como via Chiasso
Bergamo
Full dayWalled upper town
Citta Alta sits on a hill inside Venetian walls, reached by its own funicular, with a Romanesque basilica, a startling Renaissance chapel facade and lanes that empty out after the day-trippers leave. The lower town has the Accademia Carrara if you want painting as well.
Getting there
train
About 1 hr 30 by train via Lecco
Tirano and the Bernina line
1-2 daysAlpine railway crossing
The lakeside line runs on up the Valtellina to Tirano, where the UNESCO-listed Bernina railway climbs without rack or cable over a pass above 2,200 m to the glaciers at Alp Grum and on to Switzerland. It is long enough that many people break it overnight, and the vineyard terraces of the Valtellina are the excuse to stop on the way back.
Getting there
train
About 2 hr by train from Varenna, then the Bernina railway
Stresa and the Borromean Islands
Full dayPalace islands, Lake Maggiore
The next big lake west, where a family of Milanese grandees built a terraced Baroque palace garden across an entire island and left a second island as a fishing village. It is a long day from Como, but the island gardens are the one thing on the northern lakes that outdoes Como's own.
Getting there
train | ferry
About 2 hr by train via Milan or Saronno, then a short boat
A little history of Lake Como
The lake was a Roman resort before it was anything else. Julius Caesar refounded the town at its southern tip as Novum Comum in 59 BC, and by the first century both Plinys were local celebrities - the younger one describing two lakeside villas of his own, one on the water and one up on the rocks, in letters that read exactly like modern property envy. Medieval Como was rich and combative enough to fight Milan for a decade, lost, and was flattened for it in 1127, then rebuilt behind walls with imperial backing. Silk arrived in the sixteenth century and never left; the city still runs a large share of Europe's silk finishing.
The villas came later. From the seventeenth century onwards Milanese and Roman families built pleasure houses along the western shore, and the Napoleonic era and the Grand Tour turned that into a competitive garden-building spree, with English, German and Russian visitors buying in behind them. Steamers from the 1820s and then the Milan railways made the lake reachable in a morning, which is when the grand hotels went up and the modern shape of the place - villages that live off boats and gardens - settled in. The lake's darkest moment came at the very end of the Second World War, when Mussolini was caught trying to slip north through the villages of the upper shore.
Julius Caesar refounds the settlement at the lake's southern tip as Novum Comum.
Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger are born in Como; the younger describes two villas of his own on the lake.
Como loses the Ten Years' War against Milan and the city is destroyed.
Isola Comacina, the lake's only island and Milan's ally, is razed and left unbuilt.
Work begins on Como Cathedral, which takes some three and a half centuries to complete.
Silk weaving takes root in Como and becomes the city's defining industry.
Alessandro Volta, inventor of the electric battery, is born in Como.
Napoleonic-era grandees lay out the shoreline villa gardens that fix the lake's Grand Tour reputation.
The first steamer begins scheduled crossings, opening the lake to organised tourism.
Mussolini is captured near Dongo on the upper lake and shot nearby as the war ends.
Know before you go
Payment
Cards & cash mixed
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type C / F / L
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+39
Mobile network & SIM card
Get an eSIM before you fly
A Italy eSIM installs in minutes and works the moment you switch off flight mode. No SIM swap, no roaming bill.
FAQs about Lake Como
▸ When is the best time to visit Lake Como?
Early spring rates highest here. March brings clear air off the mountains, mild rather than warm days, the villa gardens starting to open and none of the summer queues. Later spring is greener but wetter, high summer is hot, hazy and crowded although it is the only stretch when the water is really swimmable, and autumn is the rainiest run of months. Nothing is bad enough to rule a month out, but nothing quite matches that early-spring window either.
▸ How many days do you need at Lake Como?
Three to five. Two full days cover the mid-lake villages and one or two of the great gardens; a third lets you walk the Greenway or a stage of the eastern-shore path, and a fourth or fifth opens up the quieter northern basin, Lecco's mountains or a day out to Milan, Lugano or Bergamo.
▸ Bellagio or Varenna - where should I base myself?
Bellagio if you want the classic version and the best boat connections, since it sits at the fork of the lake with services in every direction. Varenna if you are coming by train, want somewhere smaller and quieter in the evening, or want to spend less: the station is minutes above the pier, so you can arrive from Milan and never touch a car. Menaggio is the sensible third option for families and walkers.
▸ Do I need a car at Lake Como?
No, and it is often a hindrance. Boats link the shore villages, the eastern shore has its own railway, and buses cover both shore roads. The roads themselves are narrow and slow, village centres restrict traffic and parking is scarce and hard-won in season. A car only earns its keep for the high side valleys and the quieter northern towns.
▸ Is Lake Como expensive?
It is one of Italy's pricier destinations, especially in the mid-lake villages and the grand hotel strip on the western shore, where rooms and waterfront dining sit near the top of the national range. It gets markedly cheaper if you base yourself in Como, Lecco or a northern town, eat away from the piers and travel outside high summer - and the best things here, the boat rides, the walks and the views, cost little or nothing.
▸ Can you swim in Lake Como?
Yes. Lidos and shingle beaches operate along both shores and around the northern basin, which is the shallower, warmer and more open end. It is a deep glacial lake, so the water stays cold and only really warms up in high summer, and the villa shore around the mid-lake is mostly walls and boat traffic rather than places to get in.
More in Italy
Assisi
A hill town whose Basilica di San Francesco holds one of Europe's greatest fresco cycles, because the man who owned nothing is buried underneath it.
✓ best Mar-OctBologna
Italy's greatest eating city, and a medieval one you can cross end to end without leaving the shade.
✓ best Feb-Jun, Aug-NovCagliari
A three-thousand-year-old capital with a fortress on the hill, flamingos on the lagoon and a long white beach on the city bus map.
✓ best all year