Lake Como

Lake Como, or Lario, is shaped like an upside-down Y: a long northern arm splits at the promontory of Bellagio into two southern branches, one ending at the city of Como, the other at Lecco. Mountains rise almost straight out of the water on every side, and the lake is correspondingly deep, reaching about 425 m, with its floor more than 200 m below sea level. It covers 146 km², the third-largest lake in Italy after Garda and Maggiore, and runs about 46 km from end to end. The basin began as river canyons cut when the Mediterranean nearly dried out some six million years ago; Ice Age glaciers of the Adda then scoured them far deeper.

The shores have been a retreat for the rich since Pliny the Younger built two villas here in the 1st century AD. The tradition revived in the Renaissance and has left a chain of gardens that are the lake's real treasure. Villa Carlotta, begun in 1690, is known for its spring show of azaleas and rhododendrons and for sculpture by Antonio Canova; Villa del Balbianello, built in 1787 on a wooded headland, has terraced gardens that film crews return to again and again; Villa Melzi is a Neoclassical house of 1808 to 1810 with a Japanese garden; Villa Monastero grew out of a Cistercian monastery. Villa d'Este, built in 1568 for a cardinal, is now a hotel. On the hillside above Ossuccio, facing the island of Isola Comacina, fifteen Baroque chapels built between 1635 and 1710 climb a path to a sanctuary: the Sacro Monte di Ossuccio, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003.

The lake has its own rhythms. A northerly breeze, the Tivano, blows in the morning and a southerly one, the Breva, takes over in the afternoon, reliable winds that draw sailors, windsurfers and kitesurfers. Olive trees, laurel and cypress grow on the lower slopes thanks to the mild climate, while the fishery supplies local specialities such as missoltino, dried shad. Writers from Stendhal to Alessandro Manzoni set pages here, and Franz Liszt spent the autumn of 1837 in Bellagio, where his daughter Cosima was born.

Popularity has a price. In 2023 the area logged about 4.8 million overnight stays, heavily concentrated in summer, and the most photographed villages can be overwhelmed at weekends. Spring, when the villa gardens are in flower, and early autumn are calmer times to explore by boat.

Getting there

Bellagio sits at the centre of the lake; Lecco is about 19 km away at the end of the south-eastern arm, and Como about 25 km away at the end of the south-western one. Public boats linking the lakeside towns are run by Navigazione Laghi. Regional trains on the Lecco–Tirano line follow the eastern shore, and international EuroCity trains stop at Como San Giovanni on the Milan–Chiasso railway. The nearest airport is Lugano (LUG) in Switzerland, about 28 km from the centre of the lake; the three major Milan airports are Bergamo Orio al Serio (BGY, about 50 km), Malpensa (MXP, about 59 km) and Linate (LIN, about 60 km).