Lake Como & the Italian Lakes

The Italian Lakes have been drawing Europeans north for three centuries. The combination of Alpine air, warm water, lush gardens, and the particular quality of northern light on still water is one that defies easy explanation. Como is the most famous and, for good reason, the most beautiful: a deep glacial lake surrounded by steep wooded hills, with villas and villages that reflect the wealth and taste of centuries of cultivation. It is both dramatic and immensely peaceful, often at the same time.

When to go

May and September. Both are close to perfect.

May on the lakes is the beginning of the season: the camellias and azaleas are in full colour, the air is warm but not yet heavy, and the ferries begin their regular service between the villages. The gardens of the great villas are at their most extraordinary. Book the ferry from Como to Bellagio and take the upper deck.

September brings a different quality: the summer visitors have largely departed, the light turns golden, and the restaurants are at their most relaxed. Swimming in the lake in September, when the water has held all summer’s warmth, is one of the better experiences available in northern Italy.

The Lake

Como, Bellagio, and the villas along the shore.

Lake Como is an inverted Y: three arms meeting at the Bellagio promontory, which divides the lake’s two southern branches. Bellagio is the central village, famous deservedly for its position and its gardens, but the lesser-known villages of Varenna and Tremezzo are equally beautiful and considerably less crowded. Varenna, on the eastern shore, with its narrow lanes and waterfront promenade, is Nesse’s preferred base: less visited, more genuinely itself.

Three great villas line the shore: Villa del Balbianello, Villa Carlotta and Villa Melzi, each one an exercise in ambition and refinement. Balbianello is the one to prioritise: its position at the tip of a small promontory, with the lake on three sides, is as close to perfection as any man-made landscape in Italy. It has been used as a film location so often that it has an air of déjà vu, which only makes the reality more striking.

Beyond Como

Maggiore, Garda, and the lakes that the crowds overlook.

Lake Maggiore, an hour west of Como, is wider and wilder: the Borromean Islands sit in its middle waters, rising impossibly from the surface with palaces and formal gardens intact. Isola Bella, the largest, is a baroque fantasy of ten terraced gardens built on a rock. It should not exist. It does. The town of Stresa, on the western shore, is the gentlest base for the lakes region, and the most quietly grand.

Lake Orta, smaller still and largely unknown, is the lakes at their most unvisited and most beautiful. A single village, Orta San Giulio, faces a small island in the middle of the lake. No through traffic. No coaches to speak of. The most perfect lunch in the region can be eaten overlooking it on a Tuesday in September with almost no one else around.

Food & Drink

Risotto, lake fish, and the aperitivo that Milan does not own.

The lakes sit in Lombardy, and the food here is the food of the north: risotto rather than pasta, butter alongside the olive oil, a richness that reflects the Alpine proximity. Risotto con lavarello, the local lake fish, a delicate whitefish related to trout, is the dish to order on the shore. The perch from Lake Maggiore, fried simply with a squeeze of lemon, is one of the small pleasures of the region that most visitors never find.

Milan is close enough to reach for dinner and return the same evening, which Nesse occasionally recommends. The Navigli canal district, the Brera neighbourhood, the best aperitivo culture in Italy: all of it within forty minutes of Varenna. The combination of lake days and Milan evenings is one of the more civilised itineraries available in northern Italy.