Two daysA winter weekend
Como's churches, architecture and theatre, then Brunate by funicular.
Public transport
A rainy day
A rainy day in Como, all on foot and mostly under cover: the Silk Museum, the cathedral and the Tempio Voltiano.
1day4stops
- Suggested base
- Como, or Bellano if you are on the eastern shore
- Transport
- Public transport
- Pace
- Relaxed
- Best season
- Spring · Autumn · Winter
- Maurizio Moro5153 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Giamma64 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Krzysztof Golik · CC BY-SA 4.0
On Lario the heaviest rain falls in spring and autumn. On a wet day you can stay in Como and see it on foot: every stop is indoors, and the next one is never more than a quarter of an hour's walk away.
The morning is for the Silk Museum, outside the walls. In ten rooms, original machines built between 1860 and 1950 show how the city worked silk, from rearing the silkworm to the printed fabric. Lunch is in the centre, inside the walls. The afternoon starts on Piazza del Duomo. The cathedral, begun in 1396 and finished in 1740, has sixteenth-century Flemish and Italian tapestries in the nave. Beside it stands the Broletto, the town hall finished in 1215, banded in white, grey and red marble. Behind the apse rises Palazzo Terragni, built between 1933 and 1936, which you see from outside. Towards evening, on the waterfront, the Tempio Voltiano displays the instruments of Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the battery. If the rain eases, the day ends with a walk along the lake.
Suited to
- Anyone in Como on a rainy day
- Anyone arriving by train from Milan who wants a day entirely on foot
- Anyone interested in the history of silk, in science and in architecture
- Anyone who has already done the villas
Book ahead
- None of the stops needs booking.
- Tickets for the Silk Museum and the Tempio Voltiano are sold at the desk or online; those for the cathedral online or at the infopoint in the Broletto, next door.
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
Indoors, in Como
Two museums, the cathedral and Palazzo Terragni, all on foot.
Morning
The silk museum
An hour and a half among looms, dyes and prints: an industrial museum that explains what the city lives on.
Transfer: On foot15 min
Lunch
Lunch in the centre
The streets inside the walls, where you eat under cover.
Afternoon
Cathedral, Broletto and Palazzo Terragni
The sixteenth-century tapestries in the nave, and, behind the apse, the rationalist cube of Palazzo Terragni.
Transfer: On foot12 min
Evening
Tempio Voltiano and an aperitivo
Volta's original instruments, then the waterfront under the arcades when the rain eases.
Worth knowing
- The Silk Museum is outside the walls, on Via Castelnuovo, a quarter of an hour's walk from the centre. It is not far from Como Borghi station, on the line from Milano Cadorna, and city bus 7 stops nearby, at San Martino/Università.
- The Silk Museum, the cathedral and the Tempio Voltiano have their own hours and closing days: check them before choosing your day. Tourist visits to the cathedral can be limited during services and do not take place on the main feast days.
- In the cathedral, without a ticket you follow a set route along one of the side aisles; the transept, the sacristies and the balconies need a ticket.
- Palazzo Terragni houses the provincial command of the Guardia di Finanza: you see it from outside, and the interior opens only on particular occasions.
