Dounia - 11/26/2007 - Lake Como

At 40 minutes by train from Milan, one can see one of the most beautiful lakes in the world : the famous Lake Como. It is very common for Milan inhabitants to go to Lake Como during the weekends in order to find a peaceful and quiet environment, which clearly contrasts with the noise and the permanent activity in Milan. Sitting in a nice café in Bellagio, your sun glasses on, and enjoying a good pasta dish is such a relaxing moment!

Becoming more and more Italian myself – or should I say Milanese – I decided to go to Lake Como some days ago during the week end. Though I was already expecting something really impressive, I must say that I was amazed by the lake’s beauty.

Indeed, the lake is Y-shaped, and all around the “Y-shape”, one can find a whole bunch of small cities and villages, with a traditional architecture, old streets, impressive Cathedrals (called “Duomo”), old piazze (main villages’ or cities’ squares), …

Therefore, once you get to Como (by train from Milan), you can either take the ferry or the bus to go from a city to another one. I would definitely advise you to take the ferry (though more expensive than the bus) because it is the best way to enjoy the amazing views on the lake. Once you are on the ferry, you end up being in the middle of the lake, with all around you those nice cities and, above all, the mountains (you can even see the snow on the top of the mountains). Though it can sound cliché, this is definitely THE romantic spot you want to be in!

The good thing about the lake is also that you can visit the beautiful gardens of some of the famous houses that are spread around it. Be careful, most of the houses are open only from mid-March to end-October. The houses that you should definitely visit are:
- Villa Carlotta, in the city of Tremezzo
- Villa del Balbianello, in the city of Lenno. This is the house where the last James Bond, “Casino Royale” has been shot. You can totally recognise the place once you are there! It is so exciting to think that Daniel Craig was there few months ago!
- Villa Melzi, in the city of Bellagio. Bellagio is probably the most beautiful and famous city of the Lake. It became even more famous after Georges Clooney bought a house there. Too bad Georges wasn’t around when I went to visit! Bellagio has also been made famous by the well-known “Bellagio” Hotel in Vegas!

Therefore, if you have only one day to spend in Lake Como (which should be more than enough), I would advise you to go to Como, have a walk around the city (a pretty small city, so an hour should be enough!), take the ferry heading to Bellagio, then go to Tremezzo (by ferry too) and end up taking the ferry to Lenno! Be careful to check well the ferry hours. I actually got wrong while reading them, so I missed the last ferry that was going from Lenno to Como and almost got stuck in Lenno!! Hopefully, some people in Lenno told me about the bus that was going to Como and that’s how I managed to get back home. That’s one of the good things about Italy: people are very friendly and they will always try to help you when they can.