The small city of Como lies at the southern tip of the southwest arm of Lake Como. Look closely and you’ll see a few remaining city walls from the 12th century. The streets’ grid design is courtesy of Julius Caesar, who did a bit of urban planning after the Romans moved in in the 1st […]
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Castello di Vezio
You have to really want to see the ruins of this 13th century castle because the hike is straight uphill along an old mule path, then (still uphill) on stone paths winding around houses inhabited by the town’s 50 residents. The good news is that it’s worth it. If the terrific views won’t get you […]
Varenna
Varenna is a short ferry ride across Lake Como from Bellagio and is just as attractive. Colorful old buildings sit among lush gardens spilling down the mountain toward the lake. We caught a late-afternoon ferry over and were in a rush to hike to Castello di Vezio, so we hurried through the small, charming, tourist-laden […]
Chiesa di San Giovanni, Torno
Tiny lakeside Torno and its few villas and (of course!) churches sit on a point on Lake Como. The Romanesque-Gothic Chiesa di San Giovanni is the main attraction as it contains a nail from the cross, supposedly. I was impressed by the landscaped tiered cemetery fronting the lake.
Laglio
Laglio is a miniscule commune located at the foot of Mount Colmegnone. Its town center consists of a church, a post office and two convenience shops (both were closed), one of which displayed an old calendar of George Clooney in its window. Life is pretty quiet in this steep, sprawling area with less than 1,000 […]
Cernobbio
Cernobbio is another gem on Lake Como. It only has around 7,000 residents, so if you’re driving too quickly you’ll miss it. It’s worth stopping to see the small town center, church and the extravagant villas along the lake. The villas are left over from when Lombard nobility flocked here in the summer. Many of […]
Pescallo
In Bellagio, we followed a hilly path that runs along the side of Giardini di Villa Serbelloni, a sprawling garden, and ended up in Pescallo, a picturesque fishing town on the Lecco-side of the lake. The main population seemed to be cats, who had their own access to the town’s upper level.
Bellagio Sights
When you tire of exploring the many lakeside villages and hiking trails around Lake Como, make sure to walk around Bellagio and take in a few sights. You can’t miss Basilica di San Giacomo, whose tower prominently pokes above the red rooftops. The basilica dominates Piazza San Giacomo in the upper part of town. Constructed […]
Bellagio
My first glimpse of Bellagio was from the ideal approach: head-on, from the deck of the ferry from Cadenabbia, the village across the lake. It was love at first sight! The center of Bellagio, the Borgo, is full of brightly colored buildings, steep cobbled staircases, narrow stone lanes, delectable patisseries and sprawling gardens. Bellagio’s total […]
Lago di Como, or Lake Como
My new life goal is to figure out how to afford enough time to explore every rustic town, historic villa and wooded mountainside on majestic Lake Como. Amazingly, every section is picture-perfect. Lake Como is the least-developed, least-visited of the Lombard lakes. It is sprawling, shaped like an inverted Y. It measures about 160 km […]
