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Lake Como Day Trip

An hour from Milan: Varenna's lanes, Bellagio's gardens, and the ferry triangle between them.

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Your Perfect Day

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Getting There: Train

Milano Centrale to Varenna in about an hour, Como San Giovanni in about forty minutes

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The Ferry Triangle

Bellagio, Varenna and Menaggio, the three points most day trips join up

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Villa Carlotta

Eight hectares of terraced and botanic garden at Tremezzo, plus a sculpture gallery

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Monte Barro

A regional park at 922 metres above Galbiate, with the whole eastern arm below it

🧭 Why Visit

An hour by train and the Alps drop into y-shaped blue water: Varenna's lanes, Bellagio's gardens, villas that host film stars and their weddings. Como is Milan's pressure valve, and the mid-lake ferry triangle is the day trip against which others are measured.

🏛️ A Little History

Roman patricians built lakeside villas here (both Plinys were locals); centuries of silk money and aristocratic retreat added the gardens and the grand hotels, and the lake's silk industry once wove for every fashion house in Milan.

💡 Did You Know?

Como is one of Europe's deepest lakes, over 400 meters, deeper than the Adriatic nearby. Villa del Balbianello's loggia has starred in both Star Wars and Bond; its last owner, explorer Guido Monzino, kept the sledge from his North Pole expedition in the study.

🗺️ Which Arm of the Lake?

The lake is a Y, and each arm feels like a different place. Our photographs come from two of them. The eastern arm ends at Lecco, where bare limestone walls the water in and the ridge of Monte Barro looks down the whole channel. The western shore holds the great gardens, Villa Carlotta at Tremezzo and the stepped lanes of Bellagio on the point where the two arms divide. Varenna and the mid lake triangle sit between the two.

Monte Barro

Above the Lake

The eastern arm is best understood from above it, and the ridge of Monte Barro rises straight off the shoulder of Lecco.

A windswept pine on the Monte Barro ridge above the Lecco arm of Lake Como.
The Pine Above the LakeThe path out of the Monte Barro woods opens at a single wind shaped pine, and the whole eastern arm of the lake lies underneath it.
Limestone peaks rising above wooded slopes, seen from Monte Barro Regional Park.
The Limestone WallMonte Barro tops out at 922 metres above Galbiate, and the ridge looks straight across at the bare rock that walls the lake in.
The southern shore

Lecco

The working town at the foot of the eastern arm, with a medieval tower, a very tall bell tower, and mountains at the end of every street.

The medieval brick Torre Viscontea rising between painted facades in Lecco.
The Torre VisconteaAlmost nothing survives of Lecco's Visconti castle except this tower, standing between the neoclassical arcades of Piazza XX Settembre.
The tall octagonal campanile of the Basilica di San Nicolo above the rooftops of Lecco.
The MatitoneNinety six metres of octagonal stone under a pyramid spire, finished on Christmas night in 1904. Lecco calls it the Matitone, the big pencil.
A marble statue of Mario Cermenati on a rough rock plinth in Piazza Cermenati, Lecco.
Mario CermenatiThe naturalist who helped found Lecco's civic museums, on a plinth of raw rock that nods to his geology. The 1927 bronze was melted down in the war and replaced in marble.
A carved coat of arms with a galero and tassels mounted on a pink wall in Lecco.
Arms on a Pink WallA prelate's arms under a broad hat and two falls of tassels, fixed to a wall in the old centre and easy to walk straight past.
Mid lake

On the Water

The ferries are the real roads here. Everything on the western shore is easier to reach by boat than by the lake road.

The wooded Bellagio promontory and mountains seen across Lake Como from a ferry deck.
Toward the PromontoryOut in the middle the water goes properly blue, and the Bellagio promontory sits in the fork where the two southern arms divide.
Villages on the steep western shore of Lake Como seen from the water, with a boat passing.
The Western ShoreThe western shore climbs straight out of the water, and the villages hold on wherever the slope gives them room.
Tremezzo

Villa Carlotta

Eight hectares of terraced garden around an eighteenth century villa, and the sculpture a Napoleonic collector filled it with.

The white facade and clock of Villa Carlotta above its terraced garden at Tremezzo.
Villa CarlottaFinished in 1745 for Anton Giorgio Clerici. The balconies and the big clock came later, added by Giovanni Battista Sommariva after he bought the place in 1801.
A rustic grotto set into the terrace wall at Villa Carlotta, framed by red geraniums.
The Grotto Below the TerraceUnder the balustrade the wall opens into a cool rusticated grotto, ferns inside it and red geraniums spilling over the parapet above.
The formal parterre of Villa Carlotta seen from above, clipped hedges around a fountain.
The Parterre from AboveFrom the villa the garden reads as a single drawing: clipped box, a fountain on the axis, and the lake road closing the far end.
A marble statue and a long relief frieze on the blue walls of the Villa Carlotta gallery.
The Alexander FriezeSommariva filled these rooms with sculpture. Thorvaldsen's Entry of Alexander into Babylon runs right around the wall in thirty three marble slabs.
Dusk

Bellagio

The village on the point where the lake divides, at the hour when the shops light up and the day boats have gone.

A narrow stepped alley in Bellagio at dusk, lit shopfronts and awnings on both sides.
The Stepped AlleyBellagio climbs its promontory in steps rather than streets, and at dusk the shopfronts light them better than the lamps do.
A sloping Bellagio street at dusk with a hanging lamp, opening toward the lake.
Down to the WaterEvery lane in Bellagio points back at the lake in the end, and this one finishes on the mountains of the far shore.
A butcher shopfront in Bellagio with a bull's head sculpture mounted above the sign.
The Bull Over the DoorA macelleria e salumeria under a green painted sign, with a bull's head fixed to the wall above it in case the lettering was not clear enough.

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Where to Stay on the Lake

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Local Tips

  • Pick an arm and stay in it. Trying to do Lecco and the western shore in one day means most of the day is spent on the water rather than in the places.
  • The ferries are the roads here. Check the timetable before you plan the afternoon, because the last useful crossing is earlier than you expect.
  • Villa Carlotta rewards the climb. Most visitors stop at the parterre by the entrance, and the botanic garden with the fern valley is above and behind it.
  • Stay for dusk if you can. Bellagio's stepped lanes are full of day trippers until the boats leave, and then the shopfronts light them and the place changes completely.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you do Lake Como in a day from Milan?
Comfortably, if you choose one part of it. Trains reach Varenna in about an hour and Como city in about forty minutes, and either gives you a full day on the water without rushing.
Which arm should we pick?
The western shore for the famous gardens and the villages, Bellagio and Tremezzo above all. The eastern arm, ending at Lecco, is the quieter one, more mountain than villa, and it is the better half if you want a walk with a view.
Is Villa Carlotta worth a ticket?
Yes, and for two reasons rather than one. The terraced garden runs to eight hectares and keeps going uphill well past the formal parterre, and the villa itself holds the sculpture Giovanni Battista Sommariva collected, including Thorvaldsen's Alexander frieze.
Do we need to book anything in advance?
The trains and the ferries take you as you come. Book only if you want a guided crossing or a specific villa tour, and check current times and prices before you travel.

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