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Menaggio

Lago di Piano Nature Reserve

Visit duration
1 h 30 – 3 h
Booking
Not required
Area
Centro Lago
The Lago di Piano at the end of summer, rowing boats on the shore and a wooded knoll mirrored in the water.Achille Ballerini · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Kaitu · CC0
  • Emanuela Fisch · CC BY-SA 4.0

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The Lago di Piano at the end of summer, rowing boats on the shore and a wooded knoll mirrored in the water.

Achille Ballerini · CC BY-SA 4.0

Why go

The Lago di Piano is a nature reserve in the Val Menaggio, on the road to Lake Lugano.

Protected since 1984, it is managed by the Comunità Montana Valli del Lario e del Ceresio.

It includes the lake, wetlands, meadows, woods, streams and the medieval hamlet of Castel San Pietro. The waymarked walk round the lake is about five and a half kilometres long and takes an hour and a half. Starting at the Casa della Riserva, you reach the nature observatory and botanical boardwalk halfway round. Motor navigation, including electric motors, is forbidden. The Casa della Riserva has rowing boats for hire and an education room with an ecomuseum and a collection of antlers and horns. The former Menaggio–Porlezza railway path crosses the reserve, for walkers and cyclists.

  • A lake for walkers and rowers: no engines, reed beds and water lilies.
  • The waymarked path through the lake's wetlands and medieval hamlet, between Lake Como and Lake Lugano.

Highlights

  • The walk round the lake
  • The observatory and its botanical boardwalk
  • Castel San Pietro, the medieval hamlet

Getting there

  • On the road between Menaggio and Porlezza: the Casa della Riserva is at Piano, a hamlet of Carlazzo.
  • On foot or by bike along the path of the former Menaggio–Porlezza railway, which crosses the reserve.
  • Without a car, the C112 bus Menaggio–Porlezza–Lugano stops at Piano.
An old fallen trunk in the still water of the lake, a young tree growing out of it, and sunbeams breaking through the clouds over the wooded mountains.Giuseppe Pinna. 85 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Practical information

Address

Via Statale 1561/d, Piano, 22010 Carlazzo

Telephone

+39 0344 74961

Dogs

On a lead only

Updated 22 October 2026

On the map

Explore the lake
MenaggioLago di Piano Nature Reserve

© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL

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Sources and credits

Verified at source1 Oct – 8 Oct 2026

Riserva Naturale Lago di Piano — Comunità Montana Valli del Lario e del Ceresio:Opening, Telephoneopens in a new tabTickets, Dogsopens in a new tab

Sources and credits

Verified at source1 Oct – 8 Oct 2026

Riserva Naturale Lago di Piano — Comunità Montana Valli del Lario e del Ceresio:Opening, Telephoneopens in a new tabTickets, Dogsopens in a new tab