A week of things to do on Lake Como west.
September 26, 2018
My parents celebrated their 50th anniversary a few weeks ago (well done Mum and Dad!) so, as they were coming to visit us on Lake Como to celebrate their half century I thought a good gift would be a personalized itinerary (Mum’s words – “what a lovely daughter we have” – totally earned some brownie points there). Each day we chose something from the itinerary. They had a fantastic time and at the end, they couldn’t decide which was their favourite day.
So, for anyone wondering whether they can spend a whole week around Lake Como, the answer is definitely, yes! Below you can see just an idea of some of the things we did and this is just for the west side. It doesn’t include going into the mountains (another blog, to follow) or any major hiking (our favourite hikes of the area will follow), or the east side of Lake Como. We have been here 5 months and feel we haven’t even scratched the surface, we are always finding new places to explore and new walks or bike rides to do.
A walk on the shores of Lake Como, lunch and a well deserved beer or cocktail at the end.
We love this walk and do sections of it every week (20 minute lakeside walk to our favourite beer/cocktail bar or 40 minutes to our favourite restaurant),but this is the full circular walk from Cremia, going as far as Dongo and then back again. This includes a climb up to the church Santa Eufemia, so we can fully justify the coffee stop on the way, the two course lunch with wine half way round, possibly a gelato on the return leg and definitely a beer (Clark) or cocktail (me) at the end at Lo Scalo.
The walk from Cremia as far as Musso is all lakeside, with no roads. Along the way there is the Veranda Beach Cafe which we have frequented for morning tea or coffee and sometimes a croissant.
Although it’s a bit of a climb to Santa Eufemia, we recommend making the effort to get these amazing views. To get there, leave the lake at Musso ferry point and walk up to the road. Opposite there is small alley going up. Walk along this for about 3-4 minutes and then take the turn right where the red arrow is. Follow the signs once you get to the village.
The path down from beyond the church to Dongo is fairly steady and well signposted. Once in Dongo it’s definitely time for lunch. There are a couple of restaurants by the harbour with the views, but our favourite restaurant is Osteria Bombardin, in a small alley behind piazza di Dongo. The owner is amazing and will explain the menu; the food is local and seasonal and the wine list is good. He introduced us to a white wine called Lugana, which we hadn’t had before and is now a firm favourite.
To walk back just follow the lake path (short stretch on the road) until you get to the start.
A day in Como
Como isn’t one of the obvious tourist cities to visit in Italy but it is unique, and the first time we visited we were really surprised at how amazing. It’s small (you can easily walk around the city in an hour), in a great location at the bottom of Lake Como and combines cobbled streets, great dining, boutique shops, villas, lakeside walking and a funicular. This is not your typical city, it’s diversity offers something for the shopper, the hiker, the gourmet and the culture lover.
We have now visited several times and I still don’t think we’ve uncovered everything, but these are some of our favourite things to visit.
The Duomo and the walled city
The Duomo is a must see; it is beautiful both outside and in. Visitors enter at the side through the ‘frog door’, so called because there is a stone carving of a frog chasing a butterfly that is said to be good luck if you touch it. The luck would be in finding it. We scoured the entire doorway both inside and out and eventually I asked one of the curators inside, at which point he showed me a small carving on the left of the doorframe (outside), it’s head missing. The best way to spot it is to look for the dark patch just above head height on the left (from many years of people touching it). Really not worth the fuss, but now you know.
The city is an old walled city and it’s worth walking to the old gateways to see these and the walls, and on the way you get to experience the narrow streets, piazzas and boutique shops.
There are two other things that I really enjoy here (other than eating-see below). It is possible to do both in a day, but since living in Italy, I prefer their idea of “piano, piano”…rough translation – slowly, gently, don’t rush. So I prefer to do one or the other (and enjoy a leisurely 2 course lunch with wine). One is the funicular, the other a walk along the lake shore to Villa Olmo.
The funicular from Como to Brunate
The Funicular runs up to the hamlet of Brunate for spectacular views. There are a couple of cafes and restaurants at the top and you can also walk further up to Faro Voltiano di Brunate (Volta’s lighthouse). The lighthouse is open to climb for a small fee and the view is expansive. I made the mistake of wearing wedges to walk up to the lighthouse and although the walk is not difficult, it is steep and about 30 minutes on a trail which is very uneven (and missing in places), so flat shoes are definitely required.
A lakeside walk and Villa Olma
The walk from Como to Villa Olmo is along a lovely path on the lake shore; it takes about 30 minutes, is flat and passes several other pretty villas and buildings. It’s free to go in, but the grounds are the most picturesque thing to see.
The food
Of course there are some beautiful restaurants along the lake, especially if you walk towards the funicular. I took my parents to L’Antica Riva and the food was really good, local food, the waiters cheeky chappies and the view of the lake amazing. For something a little off the beaten path, La Cucina di Elsa,
which has lovely outdoor seating on one of the small traffic free streets, is amazing. Clark and I have also had a really great meal, wine and service in Degusteria (despite there being some negative reviews on-line).
A boat trip on Lake Como and two beautiful villas.
We lived in Pianello, which is a small hamlet on the lake. There isn’t much there, but there is a ferry launch and in the summer we get 2 ferries a day heading south. This is the slow ferry that stops at virtually every town on both sides of the lake. It is possible to drive to the town and park (very difficult in the summer), or take the bus, both of which would be infinitely faster, but we thoroughly recommend taking the slow boat at least once.
Our ferry leaves at 10.24 and for this day trip we went to the town of Lenno, which is an hour and a half on the boat (there is a little cafe on the boat to enjoy one of those amazing Italian coffees). On the way the ferry stops at 6 very picturesque lakeside towns including Varenna, Menaggio and Bellagio. All very photo worthy.
We decided to lunch early at Lenno and were really lucky to come across a great little Trattoria called Santo Stefano. The inside is simple and elegant with the most amazing bar made from old wine crates. Their daily specials were amazing (I opted for a local fish soup and Clark had an amazing hand made pasta dish with the local fish). It feels like the food is prepared and presented with great pride and passion and we felt totally spoiled to be there.
After lunch we walked south along the lake to Villa del Balbianello, site of James Bond and Star Wars movie scenes. We took the guided tour (the only option), which was well worth it as the last owner was an explorer with a very interesting life.
After our tour, we took the tourist train ‘Trombetta Express’ from Lenno to Villa Carlotta. This is a tourist ‘train’ that drives on the roads. Not usually our thing, but cooler and faster than walking.
Villa Carlotta on the lake is beautiful and you can wonder the grounds and visit the inside of the villa at your own pace. Take your National Trust cards to Italy, some of the FAI properties offer discount.
A beautiful waterfall, palace and mountain city.
We had planned a trip only to the city of Chiavenna and the Palazzo Vertemate…just these two things. However, we ended up discovering a beautiful double waterfall, the small village of Prosto, Crotti (to be explained) and a lovely river path from Prosto into the city of Chiavenna.
We’ve done this twice now and there’s definitely a better order to do it in. Go to the waterfalls ‘Acqua Fraggia’ early (around 9am), the light is perfect on the waterfalls first thing and then go to the palazzo
and take a morning tour (it opens at 10am). The tour is worth it as the interior of the house is so extravagant and completely unexpected. 
From here we went to the small village of Prosto, where we took the bridge over the river and walked into the city of Chiavenna. Chiavenna has many ‘Crotti’, which are a great place to stop for a truly authentic lunch time experience.
A ‘Crotto’ is a restaurant where part of the building is built into rock, which provides natural cool air from the mountain. This creates the perfect environment for storing cheese, meat and wine.
We went to Crotto Belvedere (about 2 minutes walk after the bridge) and were treated to cold meat and cheese plates, followed by a local delicacy of polenta with slow cooked beef…beautiful, and of course we had to wash it down with some local wine, rude not to.. There is also a shop where you can buy cheese, meat and wine from the crotto and we were very surprised when the owner offered to show us into the crotto caves too, to see where everything is stored and feel the air coming from inside the mountain…seriously cold and totally fascinating. A great experience and I totally love how friendly and proud the Italians are to show you everything Italian.
The walk from there to chiavenna is along a beautiful shady river path and enters the city past beautiful buildings including the Palazzo Balbiani.
Chiavenna itself is all cobbled streets and piazzas surrounded by mountains. It is really picturesque to walk around and there are plenty of boutique shops and artisanal food and wine shops to poke around.
Morbegno and Agriturismo La Fiorida
The food
We go to Morbegno quite a lot. It’s a very small town at the base of the mountains in the Valtellina valley. Why do we love it? The first reason – the shops, especially the cheese shop,
Fratelli Ciapponi.
I’m sure everyone has been to great cheese shops (I thought I had too), but this is a cheese shop and then some. You can buy a lot of different artisanal products in the shop, from pastas to honey to biscuits to local grappa, but the cheese and meat room is something special, and we love going in there to select our cheeses from the many options (and to taste a few….to help make the decision of course) and also select one or two of the Italian meats hanging from the ceiling (donkey salami anyone?). Once selected it is all placed on a wooden board to be taken to the till.
The second reason (also food related), good restaurants. Our favourites to frequent are Antica Osteria Rapella, which has an amazing garden naturally shaded under grape vines, and Osteria San Giovanni, a traditional family run restaurant and ‘vineria’.
The wine
The third. The valtellina region is a wine region 
(albeit a small one). They grow the nebbiolo grape (more famously known for its use to make Barolo – see our post) and produce, in our opinion, fantastic light red wines. The unfortunate thing (as we are moving to Boston), is that about 80% of the wine produced here is consumed within a 100 mile radius of the area, making the wine hard to come by and expensive outside of the area. When we’re here we pay between 7 and 15 Euro for what we think is an excellent red wine, and we never buy anything else (it’s that good). We have since taken a long weekend right in the middle of the Valtellina valley to explore more. To see what we found, see our post.
Around the end of September for 3 weekends Morbegno holds the “In Cantina”
wine festival, which is a great way to visit the cantinas (basically, the cellars in the city), and where you can taste different vineyards’ wines and some of the local food. This is not an occasion to buy wine (in fact it is not possible), it is a social occasion to enjoy the wine and join in with the locals.
Agriturismo La Fiorida
On the way back from Morbegno, we sometimes go to Agriturismo La Fiorida. It is an organic working farm and farm shop, with a Michelin star restaurant ‘La Presef’. Well worth a visit, even if just to see the most beautiful (and largest) cows ever.
A day in Bellagio
This is another place we have been to many times and is one of the prettiest towns on Lake Como. It is set on the lake shore, with steep, cobbled, pedestrian only streets, lined with boutique shops, cafes and restaurants.
The nicest way to get to Bellagio is on the ferry from either Varenna on the East, or Griante on the west and the view as you come into the port is beautiful. Turning right as you leave the ferry and walking along the lake shore, you will reach Villa Melzi, which has the most amazing grounds and views of the lake.
There are 3 great restaurants that we have been to several times. La Punta, which is about a 10 minute walk out of town on the peninsula of Bellagio. It has the most amazing views, a large outdoor terrace and great food. Booking is advised, even for lunch. If you want the best carbonara ever, go to Ristorante Terrazza Barchetta. I thought I didn’t like carbonara, too creamy for me, but I have been fed ‘UK carbonara’ where they actually make the sauce with cream (there is no cream in carbonara….only eggs!), this was the best revelation ever, so delicious. The other is La Fontana, which has a small outdoor seating area on one of the small cobbled streets, great waiters and great food (and wine…of course).
This is a great place for shopping and we have bought many a thing here; Wooden bowls and cheese boards, leather bags and wallets, scarves, beautiful coloured glass rings (a bargain at 12 Euros…I have three), china vases and even a Missoni hat (there is a Missoni store..random).
