Dave & Meredith's Travel Blog

We spent two days in Lake Como.  We weren’t sure when we were planning the trip whether we wanted to go, and after the ankle incident in Cinque Terre, we almost didn’t make this stop.

I’m SO glad we did.  Lake Como is more picturesque and beautiful than any picture I’ve seen, the towns along the lake are charming, the food is wonderful and the people are warm and friendly (honestly, we haven’t been anywhere in Italy where the people were not warm and friendly).  I would love to come back sometime and spend a few more days here – it is a very chill place to have a vacation.

We based ourselves in Varenna, at the middle of the lake along the eastern shore.  What an adorable town.  We really lucked out with our hotel – we booked it the day before we showed up, and it was beautiful, across the street from the ferry landing, and included breakfast and dinner (the food was AMAZING!), which helped a lot with my “condition” because the towns are a bit hilly off the water.  It’s called Hotel Olivedo.  So great.

On our first day, it was a bit rainy, but we took a ferry to Bellagio, where we walked around the town and out to a panoramic point that’s right at the Y of the lake (Lake Como is shaped like an upside-down Y).  Beautiful, but I’m glad we stayed in Varenna, because Bellagio is a little too “scene-y” for us – one of our guidebooks described the feeling you get as “tramp in a palace” although I wouldn’t go that far to describe it.  Perfect place for a little day trip, and there are tons of waterfront cafes to sit and take it all in.

On the second day (really a half day), we drove along the lake and up above into the mountains – gorgeous gorgeous.  Here are a couple of pics Dave took:

A view of Varenna from the mid-lake ferry.

A view of our hotel at the ferry dock taken from above at Varenna’s center.

A view across the lake from the ferry dock in front of the hotel.

A view of us. 🙂

– Meredith