Two daysTwo days in the centre of the lake
Three shores, four gardens, and never more than twenty minutes of ferry.
Public transport
Three days on Lake Como
The city, the centre of the lake and the garden shore, without ever retracing a step.
3days12stops
- Suggested base
- One night in Como, two nights in Varenna or Menaggio
- Transport
- Mixed
- Pace
- Balanced
- Best season
- Spring · Summer · Autumn
- Giamma64 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Maurizio Moro5153 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Nicolago · CC BY-SA 3.0
- LauraPiatti · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Ray in Manila · CC BY 2.0
- Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Daderot · Public domain
- Navin75 · CC BY-SA 2.0
Three days in geographical order: start in Como, move up to the centre, finish on the western shore, changing base only once.
Suited to
- A complete first visit
- Anyone flying into Malpensa
- Travellers who want the city and the architecture too
Book ahead
- Two separate places to stay
- Villa del Balbianello
- The Villa Serbelloni park, if it interests you
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.
The page as a printable document, with the route drawn on it: useful where there is no phone signal.
Add to your calendar
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
Como, silk and rationalism
The city, all on foot, and the funicular for sunset.
Morning
The cathedral and the walled centre
The cathedral took three and a half centuries to build; behind it stands the gridded facade of Palazzo Terragni.
Lunch
Lunch in the centre
The streets around Piazza Volta, then down to the silk museum or along the waterfront.
Transfer: On foot15 min
Afternoon
The silk museum
Original machinery and the complete cycle of Como silk. It explains the industry Como lives on.
Transfer: Funicular7 min
Evening
Funicular to Brunate at sunset
Seven minutes and five hundred metres higher. The funicular runs into the evening, so you can stay for dusk and come down for dinner.
- Day 2
Up to the centre of the lake
Transfer by boat, then Bellagio and the headland.
Transfer: Fast service50 min
Morning
Como to Bellagio by boat
The fast service takes about fifty minutes, the ordinary boat over two hours but stops everywhere. Either way you arrive having already seen half the lake from the water.
Transfer: On foot20 min
Lunch
Lunch at Pescallo
Twenty minutes on foot across the headland brings you to the little harbour on the other side.
Transfer: On foot15 min
Afternoon
Villa Melzi gardens
The lake's first English garden, walked almost entirely on the level at the water's edge.
Transfer: On foot20 min
Evening
Punta Spartivento
Ten level minutes from the centre, and the lake opens in three directions at once.
- Day 3
The garden shore
Villa Carlotta, the Greenway and Balbianello, all on the same shore.
Transfer: Boat10 min
Morning
Villa Carlotta
Ferry to Cadenabbia, entrance about 900 metres from the pier along the lake.
Transfer: Bus10 min
Lunch
Lunch at Lenno
On the square facing the lake, at the start of the path to Balbianello.
Transfer: Taxi boat5 min
Afternoon
Villa del Balbianello
By taxi boat from Lenno, five minutes.
Transfer: Boat15 min
Evening
Last evening on the shore
Ferry back to Menaggio or Varenna, dinner on the lake, and from Varenna the train to Milan runs until late.
Worth knowing
- Changing base once costs half a morning: do it calmly, not squeezed between two visits.
- The fast Como–Bellagio boat does not run all year: out of season you take the bus.
