I came to Lake Como with a plan. A spreadsheet, actually. Villas to visit, restaurants to try, ferry times color-coded by route. By Day 3, the spreadsheet was abandoned on my nightstand and I was eating gelato on a dock watching boats drift past.
That's what Lake Como does to you.
Train from Milan Centrale: 40 minutes, 5 EUR. Easy. The station in Como (San Giovanni) is a 15-minute walk from the lake. I checked into a hotel near the cathedral (92 EUR/night — excellent by Como standards) and immediately took the Brunate funicular.
7 EUR return. 7 minutes of climbing through chestnut forest. At the top: 715 meters above the lake, the entire southern arm spread below like a painting that hasn't quite dried.
I sat at the bar terrace, ordered a spritz (8 EUR), and tried not to feel smug about being here while my colleagues were in meetings. Failed entirely.
Dinner: a trattoria behind the cathedral. Risotto with perch (pesce persico) — a local specialty I'd never heard of. Delicate, buttery, nothing like restaurant fish back home. 14 EUR. With a glass of white wine from the Valtellina: 18 EUR total. I already loved this place.
Caught the slow ferry from Como to Bellagio. Two hours. This is not wasted time. This is the trip. The ferry weaves between villages, the mountains slide past, and you slowly leave the real world behind.
Bellagio is gorgeous. No argument. The Salita Serbelloni — the steep cobblestone lane from the ferry dock upward — is lined with silk shops, ceramic stores, and gelato places charging 4 EUR for a small cone. (It was good gelato. But 4 EUR. I noted this in the spreadsheet before the spreadsheet was abandoned.)
Villa Serbelloni gardens: 10 EUR for a guided tour at 11AM. Worth it for the views from the top — three branches of the lake visible simultaneously. The guide spoke in rapid Italian with occasional English summaries. I understood maybe 40%.
Honest assessment: Bellagio is at its best before 10AM and after 5PM. Between those hours, tour groups flood the narrow lanes and the waterfront restaurants shift into processing mode. I ate lunch one street uphill from the square and saved about 8 EUR on an identical pasta dish.
Moved to Varenna. The Passeggiata degli Innamorati — the lakeside walkway — took my breath away more than anything in Bellagio. Maybe it was the quietness. Maybe it was the light on the water. Maybe I was just tired of dodging tour group umbrellas.
Villa Monastero botanical gardens: 10 EUR, March-October. The gardens stretch along the shore in a procession of Mediterranean plants that have no business thriving at this latitude. An elderly Italian couple were having what appeared to be a gentle argument about which roses were the best. I eavesdropped shamelessly. (He was wrong. She was right. The pink ones were clearly superior.)
The spreadsheet quietly ceased to exist. I replaced it with a system called "walk toward water and eat whatever looks good."
Ferry to Lenno. Then a 1-km walk along the lake to Villa del Balbianello, or a small boat from Lenno's dock (5 EUR).
I took the walk. It was flat, shaded, and ended with one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. The 18th-century villa sits on a wooded promontory that juts into the lake like a natural pier. Star Wars. Casino Royale. And about fifty weddings per year, judging by the booking board.
Gardens and villa interior: 20 EUR. The villa is surprisingly intimate — the study, the library, the collection of explorer's artifacts from the last owner. But it's the loggia that gets you. Wisteria-draped arches framing the lake in three directions. I sat on a stone bench under the wisteria for 20 minutes and thought about absolutely nothing.
This might have been the happiest 20 minutes of the trip.
I walked part of the Greenway del Lago — a 10-km trail along the western shore. I did the section from Lenno to Sala Comacina, about 4 km, which passes through olive groves, a tiny Romanesque church with a locked door, and hamlets where the only movement was cats.
Zero other hikers. None. On a Wednesday in June. The trail runs between stone walls with views through gaps in the trees to the lake below. At one point I turned a corner and found a bench overlooking the water with a small sign that read "Fermati e guarda" — stop and look.
I stopped. I looked.
Ferried back to Varenna. Aperitivo at a bar on the waterfront. Spritz with complimentary olives and focaccia. The owner asked where I was from and when I said the US, he said "Ah, you need this" and brought a second round unprompted. He was right.
Took the ferry to Menaggio — a larger town on the western shore with a proper piazza and a lido (public beach with facilities). The lido was 5 EUR entry and worth it for the swimming platform anchored in the lake.
The water was cold. Not unpleasant cold — the kind of cold that wakes you up and makes you feel intensely alive for about 45 seconds before your body screams to get out. 22°C according to the posted thermometer. I lasted 20 minutes, which I consider heroic.
Afterward, I walked what I thought was a short trail up the hill behind town and ended up on a mule track to Plesio, climbing 400 meters through chestnut forest in flip-flops. This was not in any plan, spreadsheet or otherwise. The view from Plesio over the lake was spectacular. My feet disagreed.
Lesson: bring proper shoes even on days you don't plan to hike. Lake Como has a way of luring you uphill.
Back to Como town for my last morning. I visited the cathedral — Gothic-Renaissance, free entry, surprisingly ornate inside — and walked the lakefront promenade. The silk shops are tempting (Como has produced silk since the 15th century) but expensive. A scarf starts at 80 EUR for anything genuine.
Final meal: aperitivo at the lake edge. Negroni and a plate of local salumi. 12 EUR. I watched the ferry I'd been riding all week glide past, full of tourists with spreadsheets and plans they'd soon abandon.
I've been back twice since. Once in autumn, when the mountains turned copper and gold and the fog made the lake feel like a secret. Once in spring, when the wisteria was blooming and the gardens were electric green.
Lake Como isn't a dramatic trip. It won't challenge you or shock you or change your worldview. It just gives you a week of beauty so consistent and unforced that when you leave, you feel rested in a way that beach vacations and city breaks never quite achieve.
Also, it ruins you for other lakes. Lake Garda? Nice. Lake Maggiore? Fine. But once you've watched fog burn off Lake Como at 8AM from a balcony in Varenna, every other lake is just water between mountains.
For practical details on planning your own trip, check our 20 essential Lake Como tips covering ferries, budgets, and the timing that makes all the difference.
Verdict: Go. Stay in Varenna. Walk the Greenway. Take the funicular. Abandon your spreadsheet by Day 3.
