The Ultimate Day Trip to Lake Como in 2024

Lake Como – Where Mountains, Villages, and a Lake Combine to Make the Most Awe-Inspiring Scenery

Lake Como is the perfect place for a day trip while you’re on vacation in Milan, Italy! It’s just over an hour away by train and is home to some of the cutest villages in all of Italy. Lake Como is a long lake situated between tall mountains right before the Dolomites and the waterfront towns are easily accessible by ferry boats. Read on for how you should spend one day exploring Lake Como’s Varenna and Bellagio villages!

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ITINERARY

7:20am – Train to Lake Como – Varenna

                To get the most of out your one day trip to Lake Como, I’d suggest taking an early train and buying your tickets ahead of time. My husband and I took the 7:20am train from Milano Centrale Station to Varenna – Esino Station. The one-hour train journey can be used to take in views of the lush landscape or for a power nap! Please check the TrenItalia website for their most up-to-date train schedule and to purchase tickets: Soluzioni | Trenitalia (lefrecce.it). There’s usually one train an hour for about 7 euros per person and make sure to validate your ticket before boarding the train!

8:30am – Buying Ferry Tickets

Once we arrived in Varenna, we walked about 5 minutes to the ferry station and purchased our ferry tickets from Varenna to Bellagio for later in the day. This is a quick ferry, only about 15 minutes. From there, we walked along to the lake into Varenna, this took about 5-10 more minutes, and was a scenic walk.

9:00am – Breakfast in Varenna at Varenna Caffe Bistrot

                Varenna is the first of two towns we visited in Lake Como. Once arriving at the Varenna – Esino Station, we were ready to enjoy our first cappuccino of the day, so we headed to Varenna Caffe Bistrot. This was a small café steps away from the lake, which made for a beautiful postcard like view while we enjoyed our coffee!

10:00am – Get Lost in Varenna

                We spend the next couple hours exploring Varenna and stumbling upon the most beautiful areas of the city. Starting from the Riva Grande, the lakefront where we had coffee, we picked a narrow staircase through the building and started walking. It’s amazing how many stairs there are in such a small town, so make sure to wear comfy sneakers! We ended up at Piazza San Giorgio, where we saw the Church of San Giorgio and grabbed a pastry at a café in the square. After that, we started walking along the main road to Fuimelatte, an even smaller village that houses a rushing river leading to Lake Como. It took no more than 20 minutes to get there, but take note that the river is not always flowing so depending on when you visit you might not get to see the river. Late March to early October is the general season of when the river should be flowing.

12:30pm – Lunch in Varenna at Bar II Molo

                After all that walking and wandering, we were starving. Once we walked back to Varenna, we headed to Bar II Molo, another lakefront café where we ate delicious Amatriciana pasta and Parmesan Risotto with a view! The view was great and the food was good, but we definitely had better pasta elsewhere during our time in Italy.

2:00pm – Ferry to Bellagio

After lunch, we rushed over to the ferry port and made it in time to catch the boat over to Bellagio! After lunch and the 15 minute ferry ride that drops you off right in town, we were energized and ready to see more of Lake Como.

2:30pm – Walk Over to the Fishing Village, Pescallo

                While Bellagio is a beautiful city that we definitely took the time to explore, we actually got off the ferry and started walking over to Pescallo. Pescallo is a quaint fishing village less than a mile from Bellagio. To get to Pescallo, you’ll need to walk “through” Bellagio, so pick a staircase and start the trek to the top of the hill that Bellagio is built on. Once you’re at the top, cross over Via Giuseppe Garibaldi and take the path down from town hall. It’s a lot, a lot of stairs, so make sure you’re comfortable with that before starting the journey, but trust me it’s worth it. Pescallo has a few restaurants of their own, so if you have time it’d be fun to stop and try one. For us, we just wanted to walk through and relax on the pebbly beach looking out to the lake. There were several sailboats anchored just off shore, which was fun to see for me since I grew up sailing Hobie Cats.

4:00pm – Time to Explore Bellagio

                After taking in the quieter village of Pescallo, we ended up back in Bellagio walking through the cobblestone stair paths. The cute Piazza della Chiesa was a nice square to relax at after all the steps!

6:30pm – Dinner in Bellagio at Trattoria San Giacomo

After a long day of walking and climbing many flights of stairs, Samuel and I were ready to eat our way through the dinner menu. The restaurant we ate at, Trattoria San Giacomo, had a small wait for indoor dining so we ordered some cocktails and drank them outside while we waited! Once we were seated, we had bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, veal milanese, mannelloni de forno, margherita pizza, and a liter of red wine! That filled our stomachs and left us ready to walk down the stair one last time to get to our ferry back to Varenna.

8:00pm – Sunset Ferry Back to Varenna

9:00pm – Train Back to Milan

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Lake Como Day Trip Recap

Getting to Lake Como – One hour by the TrenItalia trains

Getting Around Lake Como – Exploring the towns will be done on foot. Town-hopping is done on small ferry boats.

Best Time to Visit – March to September

Budget for A Couple – $150-$200 euros

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Helpful Tips

• Purchase train tickets in advance at Soluzioni | Trenitalia (lefrecce.it)
• Purchase ferry tickets at the ferry port once you arrive in each town to help set your schedule for the day
• Wear comfortable shoes! You will be covering a lot of ground and climbing a bunch of stairs throughout the day