Lake Como: What Roman Senators, Silk Barons, and the Jet Set All Saw in the Water

Most visitors arrive at Lake Como to photograph a villa and leave before the restaurants fill up. The lake obliges. It is 46 kilometers of blue-green water framed by limestone mountains, and the view from the ferry deck is enough to make you understand why Roman senators built summer houses here in the 1st century BC. But I have walked the silk mills of Como, eaten missoltini in villages with no English menus, and stood in the Roman theater when the only other person there was a local walking his dog. The lake has been attracting people with more than scenery for over two thousand years, and the reason Como became the wealthy, layered place it is today has as much to do with engineering, trade, and political survival as it does with beauty.

What follows is not a day-by-day itinerary. It is a guide to understanding why this water mattered—and why it still does.

The City's Bones: Roman Remains and Medieval Power

The Romans called the settlement Comum. They chose the spot at the lake's southwestern tip because the terrain was defensible and the water provided transport north into the Alps. They built a forum, a theater, baths, and a grid of streets that still determines the layout of Como's historic center. Walk the pedestrianized Via Vittorio Emanuele II on a weekday morning and you are tracing the path of a Roman cardo maximus, the main north-south artery of a city that was never meant to be a backwater.

You can see the remains of those baths near the cathedral, though most visitors walk straight past the glass panels in the pavement. The Teatro Romano, just off Via Caio Plinio Secondo, is a semi-circular ruin with seating for three thousand, built in the 1st century AD and rediscovered in the 19th. Entry is free, Tuesday through Sunday, 10:30 AM to 6:00 PM. I recommend visiting at opening. The morning light hits the stone seating in a way that makes the scale obvious, and you will likely have the place to yourself.

The real architectural statement in Como is the Duomo. Construction began in 1396 and lasted nearly four centuries, which explains why the building looks like a conversation between Gothic and Renaissance architects who never agreed. The facade is late Gothic, all pinnacles and sculptural detail, while the dome, added in 1744, is pure Baroque. Inside, the tapestries are the draw: 16th-century Flemish and Italian works depicting the Life of the Virgin, displayed in rotation to preserve the fabric. The cathedral is open Monday to Friday, 10:30 AM to 5:30 PM; Saturday until 4:30 PM; Sunday from 11:00 AM to 11:45 AM and 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM. Entry is free, though a €3 donation is encouraged. The side chapels contain work by local artists who never made it into the guidebooks but whose technical skill is undeniable—look for the 18th-century stucco work in the Chapel of the Crucifix.

Next door stands the Broletto, the medieval town hall built in 1215. Its striped marble facade—white, grey, and pink—was meant to display civic pride at a time when Como was fighting Milan for control of the silk trade. The civic tower rises 39 meters above Piazza Duomo. The Gothic loggia on the ground floor has sheltered market traders for eight centuries, and on Saturday mornings you can still buy cheese and salumi from producers who drove down from the Pre-Alps that morning.

A few streets away, the Basilica di San Fedele houses a 12th-century crypt and a carved wooden choir stall that survived the Baroque renovation of the main nave. It is quieter than the Duomo and worth twenty minutes if you want to see what Como looked like before the grand projects started.

The Silk Thread That Dressed European Royalty

Como's silk industry is the economic thread that ties the city's history together. Mulberry trees grow well in the lake's mild microclimate, and by the 15th century Como was producing silk for the courts of Europe. When Louis XIV needed fabric for Versailles, he did not order from Lyon first—he ordered from Como. The city's weavers supplied Napoleon, the Habsburgs, and eventually the fashion houses of Milan and Paris. At its peak in the early 20th century, Como produced 80% of Italy's silk exports.

The Museo della Seta, at Via Castelnuovo 9, occupies a former textile school and traces the process from silkworm to finished fabric. You will see hand-painted design books from the 19th century, mechanical looms from the 1930s, and a "colors kitchen" where dyes were mixed to match the season's Paris fashion plates. The museum does an unusually good job of explaining the labor: the women who worked the looms, the chemical processes that turned white silk into the colors demanded by haute couture, and the industrial spies who tried to steal Como's techniques. Entry is €10 for adults, €7 for over-65s, €5 for under-18s. The museum is open Tuesday to Friday, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM; Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Closed Monday. Guided tours in English are available at 11:00 AM on Saturdays; reserve in advance by emailing [email protected].

Silk production has declined—cheaper imports from Asia and synthetic fabrics saw to that—but Como still produces high-end fabric for luxury brands. If you want to take something home, visit Mantero Seta (Via per Cernobbio 3), a family-run outlet that sells silk scarves, ties, and fabric remnants at prices that would make a Milan boutique weep. A printed silk scarf starts at €35. The shop is open Monday to Saturday, 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM and 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM. Closed Sunday.

The Villas: Where Architects Tried to Outdo the Lake

The Romans started the trend of building showpieces on the water, but the real villa boom began in the 16th century when wealthy Milanese families discovered that Como was close enough to the city for weekend visits and far enough to feel like escape. The competition was not subtle. Each family tried to build something that would dominate the shoreline from the water, which is why the villas are positioned precisely where the ferry passengers can see them best.

Villa Carlotta, in Tremezzo, is the first major stop heading north. Built in 1690 for a Milanese marquis, it passed through marriage to Princess Marianne of Nassau, who gave it to her daughter Carlotta in the 1840s. The neoclassical villa houses sculptures by Canova and Thorvaldsen, but most visitors come for the gardens: seventy thousand square meters of botanical collection, including Europe's finest azalea display, blooming late April through mid-May. The rhododendron collection is equally impressive in late May. Entry is €17.50 for adults, €7 for children aged 6 to 18. Open March 20 to October 18: 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM (last ticket at 6:00 PM). October 19 to November 8: 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The ferries from Como stop at the Tremezzo landing stage; from there it is a five-minute walk.

Further north, on a promontory at Lenno, Villa del Balbianello occupies the most photographed site on the lake. Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini built the villa in 1787 on the ruins of a Franciscan monastery. The promontory is steep; access is either a 25-minute walk from the Lenno waterfront or a taxi-boat from the landing stage (€7 each way). The garden is €10. The villa interior, with pre-Columbian art, Chinese terracottas, and African carvings assembled by explorer Guido Monzino, requires a guided tour and costs €20. Open daily from mid-March through November, except Mondays and Wednesdays. Last entry is at 5:15 PM. The site has served as a filming location for both Star Wars and James Bond. The view from the terrace—across the lake to Bellagio—is the same one that drew Durini here, and the same one that draws the tour groups today. Go early, before the 10:00 AM rush.

Bellagio sits at the point where the lake's three branches meet. The town is small enough to walk across in fifteen minutes, but the gardens of Villa Melzi demand at least an hour. Built between 1808 and 1810 for Francesco Melzi d'Eril, Vice-President of the Napoleonic Italian Republic, the neoclassical villa sits behind an ornamental lake, a Moorish-style chapel, and a garden planted with camphor trees, cedars, and azaleas. Entry is €10. The gardens are open daily from March to November, 9:30 AM to 6:30 PM in peak season. The house itself is not open to visitors, but the garden is the point. Walk the path that runs along the water's edge and you will understand why the Lazzarini family, who bought the property in the 1980s, turned down offers from hotel developers.

On the opposite shore, Varenna offers a quieter alternative to Bellagio's crowds. Villa Monastero began as a Cistercian convent in the 12th century and was converted into a noble residence in the 17th. Today it houses a museum and a botanical garden that runs for two kilometers along the lakeside. Entry to the garden is €10; the house museum costs an additional €5. Villa Cipressi, next door, operates as a hotel, but its terraced garden is open to non-guests for €8. Above the town, the Castello di Vezio dates to the 11th century. Entry is €5, and the castle hosts falconry displays on summer afternoons at 3:00 PM and 5:00 PM.

The Towns Beyond the Postcard

The northern end of the lake carries a different historical weight. In April 1945, Benito Mussolini was captured at Dongo while attempting to flee to Switzerland. Today Dongo is a quiet town with a small museum in the Palazzo Manzi documenting the capture. The boat from Como takes three hours; most visitors do not bother. The northern towns—Domaso, Gravedona, Colico—are windier, less polished, and more dependent on agriculture than tourism. This is where the lake's history of fishing, olive oil production, and small-scale viticulture continues. The olives grown here are pressed into oil that sells for half the price of the tourist shops in Bellagio, and the quality is better.

The Como-Brunate funicular, running since 1894, climbs from Como's lakeside to the village of Brunate, 500 meters above the water, in seven minutes. A round-trip ticket costs €5.50. From Brunate, a forty-minute walk leads to the Faro Voltiano, a lighthouse built in 1927 to honor Alessandro Volta, the Como-born physicist who invented the electric battery. The view takes in the full Y-shape of the lake, the Swiss Alps to the north, and the Milanese plain to the south. Volta is commemorated by the neoclassical Tempio Voltiano on the lakefront, a museum housing his original instruments. Entry is €3, open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

If you have time for only one overlooked town, make it Torno. It sits on the eastern shore, twenty minutes by ferry from Como, and has none of Bellagio's boutiques or Varenna's tour groups. The Church of Santa Tecla contains a 16th-century polyptych by Gaudenzio Ferrari, and the waterfront promenade is the kind of place where elderly men sit on benches and argue about football without looking at the view. There is one excellent restaurant, Hotel Vapore, where the menu depends on what the owner caught that morning.

Eating Como: What the Lake Actually Tastes Like

Lake Como does not have the food fame of Bologna or the wine reputation of Tuscany, but it has something those places lost: a cuisine that is still locally eaten. The lake fish—perch, shad, whitefish—have been on local tables since before the Romans arrived. The polenta is made from buckwheat and corn grown in the nearby valleys. The cheeses come from Alpine pastures you can see from the ferry deck.

The signature dish is missoltini: dried, pressed shad fish, grilled and served with polenta. It sounds aggressive and tastes like it—salty, concentrated, deeply savory. You find it in trattorias that do not translate their menus. Ristorante La Darsena, in Bellano (Via per Lecco 2), is a reliable place to try it. The restaurant has been family-run since 1962, the fish comes from the lake, and the house wine is a local white that costs €8 per half-liter. A full meal with antipasti, primi, and wine runs €35–45 per person. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 12:00 PM to 2:30 PM and 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM. Closed Monday.

In Como town itself, Osteria Casa 28 (Via Cinque Giornate 28) serves pasta that is made in-house every morning. The casoncelli—stuffed pasta with a meat and raisin filling, dressed in butter and sage—is the dish to order. The restaurant is small, the walls are covered in vintage photographs of Como, and the owner will tell you which dishes are not on the menu if you ask in Italian. A meal costs €25–35. Open daily except Wednesday, 12:00 PM to 2:30 PM and 7:00 PM to 10:30 PM. Reservations recommended on weekends.

For a splurge that is worth it, Trattoria del Porto in Careno is accessible only by boat or a steep staircase. The set menu (€40 for dinner, €20 for lunch) features lake fish prepared simply: riso e pesce persico, grilled lavarello, polenta with missoltini. The terrace looks directly at the water. There is no road noise because there is no road. Reach it by ferry to the Careno stop, then walk down. Open daily in summer; call +39 031 910 126 to confirm winter hours.

If you want to understand what Como eats when tourists are not looking, visit the covered market on Via Vittorio Emanuele II on Tuesday and Saturday mornings. The cheese vendors sell Bitto, a hard mountain cheese that ages for years and sharpens with time. The salumi stalls offer bresaola from the Valtellina valley, just north of the lake. The fishmongers sell missoltini by the kilogram to locals who know exactly how long to soak them before grilling.

Where to Lay Your Head: From Lakefront Palazzos to Quiet Corners

Lake Como is not a budget destination, but it is possible to stay well without paying Bellagio prices. The key is choosing the right town.

In Como town, Suites & Atelier Lake Como (Via Borsieri 1) is a guest house with seven rooms in a restored 19th-century building, 400 meters from the train station. Rooms start at €95 per night in low season, €140 in July and August. The owners are architects who renovated the property themselves, and the design is genuinely thoughtful—no generic hotel furniture, no beige carpet.

In Varenna, Albergo Milano (Via XX Settembre 35) offers rooms with lake views at €80–120 per night. It is a family-run place with a terrace where breakfast is served in summer, and the location puts you within walking distance of Villa Monastero and the ferry landing. The rooms are simple but clean, and the owners know the ferry schedule by heart.

For something more atmospheric, La Locanda del Cantiere in Laglio (Via Vecchia Regina 62) is a small hotel with a restaurant attached, right on the water. Rooms start at €110. The town is quiet, the ferry stops here, and George Clooney's villa is a ten-minute walk away—though the staff will not tell you exactly where unless you ask very politely. The hotel has a private dock if you want to arrive by water taxi.

If you are determined to stay in Bellagio, Domus Bellagio (Via Valassina 29) is a boutique property with fifteen rooms, garden views, and fresh pastries delivered to your door each morning. Rooms run €130–180. It is not on the lakefront, but the walk to the water takes five minutes and the price difference from the waterfront hotels is significant.

What to Skip: The Traps That Waste Your Time

The lakefront restaurants in Bellagio with English menus and photographs of the food on the pavement boards. They are priced for the tour-group market, the pasta is often not made in-house, and the view is the only thing they are selling. Walk two streets inland and you will find better food at half the price.

The "VIP boat tours" that depart from Como and promise a personalized experience. What you get is a shared motorboat with fifteen other people, a guide who recites the same facts you can read on Wikipedia, and a stop at a café that pays the tour company a commission. Rent your own boat from one of the rental companies near the Como landing stage (€80–120 for a half-day) or take the public ferry and read a guidebook.

The shopping in Bellagio. The boutiques sell the same silk scarves, leather bags, and olive wood cutting boards you will find in every tourist town in Italy, and the prices are inflated by the location. If you want silk, go to Mantero in Como. If you want olive oil, buy it at a supermarket in Como or Varenna.

The Como-Brunate funicular at midday in summer. The queue can stretch for forty minutes, the car is packed, and the view from the top is hazy. Go at 9:00 AM or after 5:00 PM instead.

The northern lake towns in winter if you are looking for nightlife. Domaso, Gravedona, and Colico are beautiful in a windswept way, but most restaurants close by 9:00 PM from November to March, and the ferries run on a reduced schedule that makes day-tripping difficult.

The Practical Stuff

Getting to Como from Milan is straightforward. Regional trains run from Milano Centrale to Como S. Giovanni every thirty minutes; the journey takes thirty-seven minutes and costs €5.20. Faster EuroCity trains to Zurich stop at Como in under thirty minutes but cost €13 to €25. The lake is navigable year-round, though ferry schedules shrink in winter; from November to March some routes run only on weekends. Check the Navigazione Laghi website (navigazionelaghi.it) for current timetables.

The ferry network remains the most practical way to move between towns. A single ticket from Como to Bellagio costs €10.40 and takes two hours; the slower route lets you watch the shoreline shift from urban Como to the gardens of Cernobbio, then the open water of the northern basin. Day passes are available for €23.80, worthwhile if you plan to visit more than two villages. Buy tickets at the landing stage in Piazza Cavour or online; summer queues can stretch twenty minutes.

Summer crowds concentrate in July and August, when temperatures reach 30°C and the ferries operate at capacity. Spring and autumn are more practical for visiting the villas: the gardens are open, the azaleas peak in April and May, and the restaurants in Bellagio do not require reservations a week in advance. Winter has its own logic: the lakefront promenade is empty, the museums stay open, and the funicular runs with no queue.

The lake's deepest point is 425 meters, and the water remains cold enough to shock even in August. The polite way to experience the lake is from a boat deck, moving slowly enough to notice how each town positions its church tower to be visible from the water. That visibility was the point. For two thousand years, the people who built on Lake Como understood that the view works in both directions: they could see the lake, and anyone on the lake could see them.

Elena Vasquez writes about culture, history, and the food that grows out of both. She has spent the last eight years moving between cities and their archives, looking for the stories that do not make it into the guidebooks. She believes the best way to understand a place is to eat what the locals eat and read what they wrote about themselves.