Lake Como (in italian Lago di Como or Lario) is the third largest lake in Italy, right after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore. With area of over 146 square kilometers and depth of 400 meters it spans in a "Y" shape in the valleys of The Alps. Located just by the Swiss border and 40 km north from Milan it's been a popular retreat destination from Roman times up to this day.
I have seen just a glimpse of it, but it sure was enough to appreciate it's natural beauty.
COMO
We only did a day-trip to lake Como, so we had to pick up the sightseeing pace in order to get the most of it. We arrived by a suburban train from Milan to the city of Como. It's probably the largest city on the southern part of the Lake with the easiest access when travelling from the south.
Como isn't really big, but it has everything that a touristic city should have. A train station, a square with a cathedral (or a church), a square by they quay with lots of restaurants, a promenade by the lake. Many facilities to simply chill out by the waterside. With it's typical italian outlook with narrow alleys of warm-coloured buildings what really captured my heart was the sight of massive mountains peaking inbetween the streets. But it was just the beginning, I did not know what sights were coming up next...
Here's the main cathedral square. Sadly we didn't go inside, but it looked quite appealing from the exterior. I couldn't get a proper capture of it because of my lens, though.
Actually, just because Como isn't so overflowing with tourists it was really pleasent to walk around the squares and streets passing by only a few tourists but also its habitants carrying on with their lives; but that's maybe because March isn't exactly the top tourist season, in the summer the situation might be totally different. I just liked how slow and chilled it was comparing to Milan.
And then there's the promenade. I really loved it even though the mountains were still brownish instead of green, it must look even more amazing once the leaves are back on the trees.
Do you want to see Como from above? Good! There is a special tram that goes up one of the mountains on the east side of Como. After about 10 minute ride in a funny-looking cart we found ourselves pretty high above the sea level.
Finding a good viewpoint up there was a harder task then I have imagined. We walked around quite a while looking for one when eventually we crept up somebody's staircase. It was totally worth it.
ON THE LAKE
There are a few ways to go around the lake between villages. Initially, we wanted to take a bus to Bellagio, but then a guide at the tourist information gave us an idea to go by boat to Varenna from where we would have a direct train back to Milan in the evening. We missed one boat departure and took the next one, around 5-6 pm. Because of that we were lucky enough to see the lake during the golden hour of sunset.
If you ever have a chance of taking a boat in Como - do it. It was the best spent 15 euros during this entire trip to Italy. I was shooting from a window of a fast-moving boat, running like crazy back and forth between left and right deck windows willing to capture all the sights I could.
VARENNA
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