Vacation Time: Lake Como!

Experience the dolce vita lakeside

REPORTING BY Elena M. Zepeda

NESTLED IN THE HEART OF LOMBARDY, 50km from Milan, Como has to be Italy’s most glamorous lakeside resort, celebrated for its glittering waters, beautifully preserved medieval towns and opulent neoclassical villas. Get about by water-taxi, and stroll the extensive lakeside promenades for picture-perfect views with the dramatic Alps as a backdrop.

AT COMO, THE LAKE’S LIVELY HUB you can wander the cobblestone streets to find elegant piazzas lined with boutiques, gelaterias and cafés. Be sure to visit Tempio Voltiano, a neoclassical museum dedicated to Alessandro Volta the inventor of the electric battery, and Basilica di San Fedele, a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture dating back to the 12th century.

CATTEDRALE DI SANTA MARIA ASSUNTA (Duomo di Como) stands proudly in Como’s Piazza del Duomo, just a couple of steps from the lake. Often called the ‘Jewel of Lake Como’, the cathedral took nearly 400 years to build, and combines Gothic, Renaissance and Rococo styles – history carved in gleaming marble, copper and stone.

FUNICOLARE COMO-BRUNATE, once steam-powered, provides a scenic, seven-minute ride from

the town of Como to the hilltop village of Brunate. From the village, you can hike 30 minutes to Voltiano Lighthouse. It’s a tough climb up the 29m-high tower, but at the top you’re rewarded with breathtaking views of the lake, the Alps and the charming village below.

HIGH ABOVE VARENNA, CASTELLO DI VEZIO is a thousand-year-old fortress where nature, history and horizons intertwine. Explore the fort’s ancient walls, discover dungeons and underground passages and see tombs dating back to the Iron Age. There’s also a display of Lariosaurus: an aquatic reptile, now extinct – the first fossils were found near Lake Como in 1830.

18TH-CENTURY VILLA DEL BALBIANELLO at Lenno enchants with terraced gardens and elegant galleries offering a sublime view of the lake. While its high-glamour exterior has graced countless films including Star Wars: Episode II and Casino Royale, the interior reveals the treasures of explorer Guido Monzino, who owned the villa from 1974 until his death in 1988.

THE PICTURE-PERFECT TOWN OF BELLAGIO rests at the point where Lake Como splits into an inverted Y, with Como and Lecco stretching out to port and starboard. Its pastel-coloured houses and fragrant gardens tumble down to the shore, and elegant villas reflect in the lake’s shimmering waters. Make time to tour the grounds of Villa Melzi d’Eril: the lake’s first English-style gardens.