Italian lakes: Como and Maggiore
When to go
April to June and September to October. The great gardens of the lakes — Villa Carlotta, Villa Taranto, the Borromean Islands — open from late March to early November, and the azaleas and rhododendrons are at their best from late April to May. In July and August the lake villages are packed, the ferries queue, and around the middle of August all of Italy is on holiday. In winter the boats run a reduced timetable, and many hotels and villas in Bellagio and on the islands close.
The stops
Interactive map of the route on our site ›
- Milanone night
Work on the Duomo began in 1386 and its last bronze doors went up only in 1965; Leonardo’s Last Supper is a short walk away and must be booked weeks ahead. Under the Central Station is Platform 21, from which trains carried the Jews of Milan to Auschwitz in 1943 and 1944; Liliana Segre, deported from there at thirteen, survived, and the platform is now the Shoah Memorial.
- Como2 nights
The town of Alessandro Volta, born here in 1745, who built the first electric battery; his temple-museum stands on the water. The two Plinys, uncle and nephew, were born here too, and sit in stone on the façade of the cathedral.
- Villa d’Estestop on the way
Built in 1568 for Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio in Cernobbio, it took its present name from Caroline of Brunswick, the estranged wife of the future George IV of England, who lived here from 1815. It has been a hotel since 1873; look at it from the road north, the SS340.
- Villa del Balbianellostop on the way
A villa of 1787 on a wooded point beyond Lenno, left to the Italian National Trust by the explorer Guido Monzino, who led the Italian expedition to Everest in 1973; its terraces appear in Star Wars and Casino Royale. Park in Lenno and walk, or take a water taxi; on the way back stop at Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo.
- Luganostop on the way
Optional, and in Switzerland: the largest Italian-speaking city outside Italy, half an hour from Como, where Hermann Hesse lived on the hill of Montagnola from 1919 until his death. The Swiss motorway needs a vignette, and passports come along.
- Bellagio2 nights
The pearl of the lake, on the point where Lake Como splits into three arms; the villa on top of the hill was left to the Rockefeller Foundation in 1959 and is still a retreat for writers. The casino hotel in Las Vegas, opened in 1998, was named after this village.
- Varennastop on the way
A quarter of an hour by ferry from Bellagio, with the castle of Vezio above it and the Fiumelatte, a stream of about 250 metres that Leonardo da Vinci described, pouring into the lake below. Leave the car in Bellagio.
- Menaggiostop on the way
The third corner of the ferry triangle, on the western shore. On the hill above it, Villa Vigoni was left to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1983 and is now a German-Italian centre.
- Leccostop on the way
Optional, on the way south down the eastern arm. Alessandro Manzoni set The Betrothed, the great Italian novel of the nineteenth century, on these shores, and its opening words — “That branch of the lake of Como” — are known by every Italian schoolchild.
- Stresa2 nights
The resort of Lake Maggiore, where Hemingway recovered in 1918 and later set the escape across the lake in A Farewell to Arms. Ten kilometres south, at Meina, SS soldiers murdered sixteen Jewish guests of a lakeside hotel in September 1943, among the first killings of Jews in Italy after the German occupation.
- Borromean Islandsstop on the way
Three islands a few minutes from Stresa by public boat: Isola Bella, which Count Carlo III Borromeo began turning into a palace in 1632 and named after his wife Isabella; Isola dei Pescatori, the only one lived on all year; and Isola Madre, all garden. In April 1935 Mussolini, Britain and France met in the palace on Isola Bella and formed the short-lived Stresa Front against Hitler.
- Orta San Giuliostop on the way
Half an hour by car to the next lake west, small and quiet, with the island of San Giulio and its abbey of nuns a few minutes out by boat. In 1882 Nietzsche walked on the Sacro Monte above the village with Lou Salomé, and called it later the most beautiful dream of his life. The centre is closed to cars; park above.
- Aronastop on the way
On the way back to Milan stands the San Carlone, a copper statue of Saint Charles Borromeo more than twenty metres high, built from 1614 to 1698 above the town where he was born. Visitors climb up inside it by ladders to the head.
- Milanstop on the way
Back to Milan to return the car. If the flight leaves from Malpensa, drive straight there from Arona: it is on this side of the city, about half an hour away.
What it costs
Eighty dollars a night is the room. The car, the fuel and the tolls are yours: the motorways from Milan to Como and from Milan to Lake Maggiore are tolled, paid at the exit by card or cash. The ferries are yours too, paid per crossing or by a day ticket for the central lake, and on the Borromean Islands each palace and garden charges its own entry. Parking in Bellagio and Varenna is scarce and paid, and the car parks above Orta fill early. If you drive into Switzerland, the motorway vignette costs forty Swiss francs and is valid for the calendar year.
What to know
Three things. One: the ZTL. The walled centre of Como, the heart of Milan and the old village of Orta are limited-traffic zones, and a camera at each entrance photographs every plate that drives in without a permit; there is no barrier, and each pass is a separate fine that reaches you months later through the rental company. Milan also charges a daily fee to enter its centre, Area C, read by the same kind of camera. Park outside and walk in, and if the hotel is inside a zone, ask it to register your plate. Two: the lake roads. The SS340 on the western shore of Lake Como and the Lariana road from Como to Bellagio are narrow, walled and full of blind bends, and the blue public buses take up the whole width; slow down, pull in where you can, and fold the mirrors in the villages. The ferries between the lake villages are for days out on foot: on this route the car stays on land. Three: Switzerland. Lugano is across the border, and the Swiss motorways need a vignette, bought online or at the border before you drive on them; carry passports, and check that the rental contract allows the car into Switzerland.
Roads, tolls and rules
Italy drives on the right. The distances on this route are short, but the lakes are long and narrow between mountains, and the shore roads are slow: thirty kilometres along Lake Como can take most of an hour. Across the water the ferries are faster than the road, which is why the days on the lakes are spent on boats and the car is used for the long hops between them. Rental cars are mostly small and manual; a small car is a blessing in the lake villages.
Travel Italian lakes: Como and Maggiore
The route on our site, with a room up to $80 every night.