Handpicked experience · Milan
Milan, Italy
A day out of Milan onto the deepest lake in Europe — with the important detail that the month you travel decides which version of this trip you actually get.
Return coach transfer between Milan and Lake Como
A guided walk through Como's old centre and along the lakeside promenade
A boat crossing on the lake, with the shoreline villas in view
The funicular railway up to Brunate for the high viewpoints, from November to March
A seasonal stop at Bellagio's waterfront and streets, from April to October
Lake Como sits an hour north of Milan against the first wall of the Alps, and it has been the place wealthy Milanese escape to since the Romans. The town at the southern tip is a working silk city rather than a resort, the water in front of it is extraordinarily deep, and the village that everyone photographs sits where the lake splits in two.
The coach leaves the city and runs north to the lakeshore, where the morning is spent on foot in the old town and along the water before boarding a boat. The afternoon depends entirely on the calendar, and then the road back.
Read this before booking. From April to October the day includes the village at the fork of the lake; from November to March it does not, and the railway up the mountain behind Como takes its place. Both are good, but they are not the same outing, and travellers who book in winter expecting the village named on the label are regularly disappointed. Check which months your date falls in and set your expectations accordingly.
A fact that changes how the view reads. At its deepest point the lake goes down more than four hundred metres, making it the deepest in Europe, and its floor lies well below sea level. Its shape is an inverted Y, and the village at the centre stands exactly on the promontory where the two southern arms divide — a spit known locally as the point that splits the wind, because the weather comes down each branch separately and meets there.
Not a decorative detail. Como has spun and printed silk since the fifteenth century, and its mills still finish a substantial share of the high-end silk used by Italian fashion houses. The scarves and ties in the shop windows are not souvenirs of an industry that left; they are the local product, which is why they are better than they look.
The domed white building on the waterfront was put up in 1927 to hold the instruments of Alessandro Volta, born in the town, who stacked discs of zinc and copper with brine-soaked cloth between them and produced the first steady electric current. The unit of electrical potential carries his name. His original apparatus is inside.
Worth pausing over. Construction began in 1396 and finished in 1740, so the building starts Gothic at street level, turns Renaissance halfway up and finishes with an eighteenth-century dome. Either side of the main door sit statues of the two Plinys, both natives of the town and both unrepentant pagans, which makes this one of the very few cathedrals in Europe honouring Roman writers on its front.
An honest note for the summer version. Between the drive each way, the walking and the crossing, what remains at the village is an hour or two, and in July and August its stepped lanes are shoulder to shoulder. It is genuinely beautiful and you will not have it to yourself. Go straight up the steps away from the landing stage and the crowd thins within two minutes.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
Only between April and October. From November to March that stop is replaced by the funicular railway up to Brunate above Como, so check which months your travel date falls in.
More than four hundred metres at its deepest, which makes it the deepest in Europe, with its floor well below sea level.
Yes, but not as a resort. It is a working city that has spun and printed silk since the fifteenth century and still finishes much of the silk used by Italian fashion houses.
A museum built in 1927 for Alessandro Volta, born in Como, who produced the first steady electric current. The volt is named after him and his original instruments are inside.
An hour or two once the driving, the walking and the crossing are accounted for. In midsummer the lanes are extremely crowded; climbing the steps away from the landing stage clears it quickly.
Roughly an hour by road each way, so around two hours of the ten are spent travelling.