Three daysThree days without a car
Three days by train, ferry and on foot, with no parking to hunt for.
Public transport
Two days with children
A gorge, a beach, the ferries and a motorcycle museum, with no villa visits.
2days8stops
- Suggested base
- Varenna or Lierna, on the railway line
- Transport
- Public transport
- Pace
- Relaxed
- Best season
- Summer · Spring
- Francescogb · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Maurizio Moro5153 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Franken-Guzzista · CC0
- Dega180 · CC0
Two days planned around children: the Lierna beach, where the bottom shelves gently, the walkways inside the gorge, the ferry as transport rather than an outing, and more than a hundred and sixty motorcycles inside a factory.
Suited to
- Families with children from about four upwards
- Anyone who wants to move without driving
- Hot days
Book ahead
- The Moto Guzzi museum visit, which runs at fixed and limited times.
The stops, today
Open on the map
The route, stop by stop.
© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
Download the route (GPX)Stops and track for Komoot, OsmAnd, Organic Maps or a Garmin.
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One event per day, with the day's plan. Import the file into a calendar app that supports the ICS format.Day by day
- Day 1
The gorge and the beach
Two train stops, two very different things.
Transfer: Train5 min
Morning
Orrido di Bellano
Steel walkways over the torrent inside a vertical ravine: the route takes half an hour.
Lunch
Lunch at Bellano
On the square facing the lake, before taking the train back south.
Transfer: Train16 min
Afternoon
Riva Bianca at Lierna
Pale pebbles, water that shelves gently, bars on the shore.
Evening
Dinner at Lierna or Varenna
The Castello hamlet above the beach takes ten minutes to cross through covered lanes.
- Day 2
Ferries, motorcycles and a lido
The lake as transport.
Transfer: Train10 min
Morning
The Moto Guzzi museum
More than a hundred and sixty machines inside the Mandello works, including a 1955 racing V8.
Transfer: Train12 min
Lunch
Lunch at Varenna
Then the ferry to Menaggio.
Transfer: Boat15 min
Afternoon
The Menaggio lido
A quarter of an hour by ferry to a pool overlooking the lake, with a lawn and facilities.
Transfer: Boat15 min
Evening
Ferry back
The evening crossing back to Varenna, with the light dropping on all three shores.
Worth knowing
- The Nesso gorge is unsuitable for pushchairs or small children: three hundred steep steps with no alternative.
- The lake is deep and the temperature drops immediately below the surface: there is no lifeguard cover everywhere.
