Lake Como – Scenic Beauty, Majestic Villas and Fun Boating

The next stop of our summer grand tour of Europe was northern Italy, first with a week in Lake Como, followed by a week hiking through the Dolomites.

We were invited by friends to spend a week with them in the small village of Torno, on the shores of Lake Como. Ann and I had visited the area nearly 30 years earlier. While that visit was on essentially a backpacking budget, this time around promised to be a different experience.

Lake Como

At the northern edge of Italy, at the base of the Alps, there are a number of glacial lakes set into the canyons of the Alpine mountain ranges. The largest and best known are Lakes Maggiore, Garda, and Como.

Shaped like an inverted Y, Lake Como is 29 miles long, but only 2 1/2 miles wide at its widest point. Como, the largest town, is at the bottom of the left fork, and Bellagio is at the spot where the two bottom sections split. The lake is almost completely surrounded by mountains that rise steeply right from the water’s edge.

The area has been a popular resort destination since Roman times. In more recent times, it has been a favorite of people of means in Milan, who go there to escape the summer heat of the city.

Villas, Villas, Villas

For several hundred years, wealthy vacationers have been building beautiful villas on the shores of Lake Como. While many have been converted into hotels, museums, and other things, quite a few are still private residences.

Over the years, many famous people have owned villas in Lake Como, including Gianni Versace, Madonna, and George Clooney. While we didn’t see any during our stay, celebrity spotting continues to be a popular pastime here.

Getting Around

Because of the steep mountains almost completely surrounding the lake, there is only room for a single 2-lane road to connect the villages along its shores. With all of its twists, turns, and blind corners, driving around the lake is a slow and dangerous proposition, leaving water transportation as the preferred option.

Lake Como has an extensive network of ferries that can get you almost anywhere along its shores. But other than a few express boats between Como and Bellagio, the ferries are slow and make many stops along their route. Sometimes it can take 3 hours just to get to a town 10 miles away! Even worse, the ferry schedule is notoriously unreliable. We quickly learned to ignore the published schedule and just walked down to the ticket office on the dock to find out when the ferries would actually be running that day. There are also private water taxis available, but the cost is prohibitive for most people. We paid 100 Euro for a 3-mile, 20-minute trip.

Final Thoughts

Lake Como is an undeniably beautiful place. Between the mountains, lake, villas and vistas, the scenery is simply stunning. There are also numerous high end hotels and restaurants to keep you satisfied. However, the difficulty of getting around puts a limit on how much sightseeing you can do.

If you stay at Villa d’Este or one of the other 5-star properties on the lake, you’ll probably feel no need to venture outside the hotel grounds. Otherwise, we think the best way to enjoy Lake Como is to find a nice place to settle in and bring the party with you.