Practical guide

I am arriving by car: where do I leave it?

Car parks, public transport connections and access to restricted traffic zones.

CV · CC BY 3.0

The short answer

Choose a car park to suit your destination and the transport you will use for the rest of the journey. In Como you can use the park-and-ride sites at Tavernola and Lazzago; in the centre-lake towns, check where the car park is in relation to the pier, the villas and restricted traffic zones.

In short

In Bellagio the three limited-traffic zones run every day from 1 April to 31 October and read your plate.
In Varenna the limited-traffic zone is permanent: twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Inside the walls of Como you never park, and at the meters you pay on Sundays too.
Bellagio and Varenna have car parks outside their restricted traffic zones: check the route to reach them.
You cannot reach Villa del Balbianello by car: you leave it at Lenno and walk twenty-five minutes.

Parking around the lake includes on-street spaces, multi-storey car parks and park-and-ride sites.

Before arriving, check the access route, the permitted length of stay and the connection to your destination. A parking space and permission to enter a restricted traffic zone are separate matters.

Leave the car at a pier or a station

To continue by public transport, choose a car park near a pier or station. Before leaving the car, check the maximum stay and the services for your return journey.

The centre-lake towns have on-street parking and multi-storey car parks. Signs indicate reserved spaces, payment conditions and time limits. Use an access route that respects the restricted traffic zone entrances.

Leave the car where there is a pier or a station, and do the last stretch by boat or by train.

Parking in Como, Cernobbio and Lecco

Como has two car parks it calls park and ride: Tavernola, on the road to Cernobbio, next to the bus stop and the Navigazione pier, and Lazzago, at the motorway exit, the larger of the two. There is a season ticket combining parking and the urban bus, and a free municipal app showing free spaces in real time. The meters have more than one band, with different hours, and one of them charges around the clock; on Sundays and public holidays you pay almost everywhere.

Cernobbio charges every day, and in summer, in the high-rotation zone, until midnight instead of seven in the evening; in the central zone parking is capped at three hours. The place to leave the car is the Villa Erba multi-storey, and on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays the comune runs an evening shuttle from 18:30 into the centre.

Lecco has fifteen car parks with automated payment machines, each with its name, number of spaces and hours published — the largest has more than four hundred — plus the meter zones, which in summer run until midnight.

Parking in the centre-lake towns

Bellagio has parking areas near the centre and in its hamlets. Areas with parking include Loppia, Pescallo and San Giovanni. Before arriving, identify the walking route to the Borgo and check whether it includes steps.

Varenna has car parks near the station and the pier, and a multi-storey car park opposite Villa Cipressi. For visits to the villas, also check the walk from your chosen car park.

In Menaggio and Tremezzina, check parking signs and access to restricted traffic zones. For Villa Carlotta and Villa del Balbianello, also plan the final stretch from the car park, on foot or using the available transport.

Bellagio has three limited-traffic zones, with exact dates and hours.

The limited-traffic zones, with their hours

Bellagio has three, all with automatic plate reading. The Borgo: from 1 April to 31 October every day, closed from midnight to five and from 9:40 to midnight — that is, open only between five and twenty to ten in the morning; from November to March it applies on holidays and the days before them. Loppia: from 1 April to 31 October every day, open between six and ten. Pescallo: the same days and the same window as Loppia, between six and ten. Access requests must be filed within forty-eight hours of driving through, and the form does not work from a phone or a tablet: you need a computer.

Varenna has a single permanent zone, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, with one gate in Piazza San Giorgio. If you sleep inside it, the property registers your plate; where the property has no space of its own, the permit covers only unloading your luggage, for half an hour.

Como closes the walled city to all motor vehicles, always, and inside it parking is banned around the clock with towing; the pedestrian area of Piazza Volta is closed even to disabled badges, and the Duomo one opens in only two windows a day. Guests of a hotel inside the walls get one access on the day they arrive and one on the day they leave, forty-five minutes each, requested by the hotel; where the hotel has spaces of its own, the access covers the whole stay. Lecco has four regulated areas, and the exact hours sit in the annexes to the rulebook, published with it.

In practice

Varenna is served by the Milan–Lecco–Sondrio–Tirano railway. Boats and car ferries connect the shores of the central lake; drivers can leave their cars in the villages' car parks.

Villa Carlotta can be reached by boat and has a landing stage; nearby parking includes the multi-storey car park on Via Peduzzi. Villa del Balbianello is reached on foot or by boat: from the Lenno car parks on Via Comoedia, Via Diaz and Via Silvio Pellico, the walk is about one kilometre and takes twenty-five minutes. A taxi boat also leaves from the Lido di Lenno, with a fare and advance booking.

Roadworks and traffic orders can affect travel on the Regina road. Check current restrictions before driving along the western shore.

Frequently asked

My hotel is inside the limited-traffic zone: can I drive in?

Yes, but with different rules and always through the property. In Como the hotel asks for one access on the day you arrive and one on the day you leave, forty-five minutes each. In Varenna the property registers your plate for the whole stay; if it has no space of its own, the permit only covers unloading your luggage, for half an hour. In Bellagio the request has to be made within forty-eight hours of driving through, and from a computer.

How much does parking cost?

Tariffs change with a council resolution: Como, Cernobbio and Lecco publish theirs on their operators' websites. What is worth knowing beforehand is something else: where you pay all day, where you pay until midnight in summer, and where you cannot park at all.

Do you pay on Sundays too?

In Como, yes, at almost every meter: there is no free parking on public holidays. In Cernobbio you pay every day, and from June to September until midnight. In Lecco the bands run Monday to Sunday.

Is there a park and ride?

Two, and both are in Como: Tavernola, next to the bus stop and the pier, and Lazzago, at the motorway exit. There is also a season ticket combining parking and the urban bus. In Cernobbio the evening shuttle on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays does the same thing on a small scale. Elsewhere, officially, there is nothing of the kind.

And in August, is everything really full?

There are no official figures on how full it gets. What is certain is that in summer the rules tighten: in Bellagio the three zones apply every day from April to October, in Cernobbio and Lecco the meters run to midnight, and at weekends and in summer parking near the Balbianello is difficult.