Sorico and Gera Lario – Touring the towns of Lake Como
August 21, 2020
We’re exploring the Lakeside towns of Como starting with Sorico and Gera Lario, both towns that we drive past on a regular basis. We’ve decided to park the car and wander the streets of each town to see what we can find. Did we discover some little gems tucked away from the road?….Well, yes we did:
A little geography to start – Lake Como is like an upside down ‘y’. The Como branch on the left and the Lecco branch on the right. We are starting our tour at the northern end of the lake at the Ponte del Passo (Bridge of the passage) and working down the Como branch to the city of Como itself 62km away.
Not to miss in Sorico and Gera Lario
The Lakeside Path
After parking the car and walking to the lake edge, we discovered a traffic free path that runs right along the lake, starting at the Ponte del Passo and travelling south to Domasso. Flat, lake-side, away from the road, good for cycling (see our rides below) and walking….nice.
The Harbour and Tower at Gera Lario
On the lake and away from the main road there is a small picturesque harbour and a lighthouse. It’s possible to walk out to the lighthouse and on the harbour wall on both sides for gorgeous views over the lake. There’s also a couple of beachy spots for sunbathing or having a dip in the lake; on a hot day it’s a must and we now always have our swimming gear in the car for such occasions.
Eating - of course we did.
On this occasion we went to Bar Pace. We have been before solely for tea and cake (we’re so English), but on this day we stopped for lunch and were very impressed. They had a few ‘obvious’ pasta dishes (Bolognese, Lasagne etc), but also an impressive selection of house-made burgers. 
Our burger standards are high after living in the US, could they do it justice? Great burger, good size, juicy and great options for additional toppings…and the outdoor seating area in dappled shade was a bonus. Did I mention craft beers?
Next time we’re going to check out Ristorante Spluga; the food looks great, but the skill of the gauntlet running waiters is the real attraction as the outdoor seating is on the other side of the main road from the restaurant.
Exciting biking
We saw a few bike path signs, but on closer inspection of the routes we decided a bit more of a warm up was needed before attempting some of these (straight up a mountain?…I don’t think so). We opted for a couple of the slightly less strenuous rides as it was our first time out – piano piano.
Gera Lario - Pian di Spagna
This is where we had an explore of the great lakeside path We cycled from Gera Lario to the Ponte del Passo and once over the bridge there is a stunning area called Pian di Spagna, a nature reserve full of farmland, small roads and off-road tracks… and almost totally flat, result! We did a modest 26km, taking in the end of the lake where the river Adda enters and also discovering a small quiet beach. Seriously, anyone can cycle around here.
Sorico - Albonico - Dascia
On the map this looks fairly easy going; whoops. From Sorico it was almost immediately up, up and up some more along a zigzag road going up the mountain. Being the experienced cyclists we are of course we did it in one go (actually I lost count of how many times we stopped…I put it down to “taking photos of the amazing view”). We did pass through beautiful mountain villages and had amazing views of 2 other lakes we hadn’t experienced before, Lago Mezzola and Laghetto (translates as ‘pond’…not sure that’s quite right – mini lake?) di Dascio.
We found a great lunch stop at Sasso di Dascio, a small chapel above the two lakes with outstanding views. Although our up was quite long, our down was along an old cobbled passage; a bit of a bone shaker but very steep so we got down in no time. Gravity at its best.
A quick dip?
After a bike ride there’s nothing better than a dip in the lake to cool off and freshen up. With a large sandy beach in Sorico, the beach in the Pian di Spagna and grass and pebble areas in Gera Lario we were spoiled for choice. Tough end to the day.
Of course this isn’t our first time on Lake Como. While living in the village of Pianello we came up with our ‘Week of things to do on Lake Como West‘.
While we’re here we’ll be re-visiting all our favourites, starting with Lo Scalo, our old local haunt on the lake….memories.
