Lake Como is actually one of the most beautiful places I’ve been in Italy. It is such a scenic and breathtaking location. There is a lot to see, a lot to do, fantastic restaurants, incredible views, and nice people.
Tips before traveling to lake Como
SIM card
I personally recommend Esim, which is an electronic SIM. I like Airalo. I was very satisfied with their user experience (simple tutorial videos for operating the SIM card) and everything worked without any special problems.
Blog followers have a 15% discount code for the Airalo company to purchase an ESIM – to redeem the discount, click on this link. The discount code is already included in the link. See it at checkout.
The biggest drawback at the moment is that some devices do not support an electronic SIM. How will you know that your device supports eSIM ? Very simply go to this link and you will know.
Where to sleep in lake Como?
We stayed at an Airbnb apartment close to Bellano called Dervio .
A Highly recommnded apartement – link .
How to get to lake Como?
The easiest way is to fly to Milan airport and from there to rent a car and drive to Bellano. about 1.30 hours drive. You can also arrive there by train and a ferry but renting a car is the most recommended way.
You can search for a car in the search engine Papam Papam. Personally, I really like to search through it because it saves me time (instead of going to several websites) and it also has the option of filtering out non-recommended rental companies.
Attractions in lake Como
You can get ideas for other cool tours you can do on the various attraction sites and even order through them (sometimes at a discounted price). The first attraction site is called tiqets, the second is the site Get Your Guide or via Viator.
Go around the cities and villages around the Lake
It’s really easy to transport either via train, car, or boat. While at Lake Como, we got to visit the city Bellagio, Bellano, Dervio and Lierna. Belano, Verena, and Lierna were on the same side as our little village, so we took a car to get to those places. The shortest way to get to Bellagio was by a boat.
There are cafes and restaurants all over the village. There are many things to do such as going to see the creek, the waterfalls, or even visit the stunning botanical gardens.
I wrote 2 posts about Bellagio and Bellano, where I mentioned attractions and great restaurants.
The Best Restaurant we’ve been in Italy
On the last day of our trip, we decided to go to a higher-end restaurant. We looked for recommendations for restaurants in Lake Como and there a few that got a really high ranking. We had a few options, but we ended up going to Osteria Quatro Pass. We are so happy that we got a chance to eat there, because it was the best restaurant that we ate at on the trip. (The second best was at Lucca, click HERE to read about Lucca.)
The restaurant is downhill from the main street. When we got there, we fell in love with the intimate and romantic vibes. Although its view is not to the lake, the design was amazing and the service was exceptional. There are outdoors seatings as well, but it was quite chilly that night. We happened to sit next to the couple we met at the wine bar in Bellagio. What are the odds?
For appetizers we ordered fish carpaccio, eggplant in parmesan, and fish-filled ravioli. And man, were they delicious. Every single bite was heaven to our tastebuds. For the main course I ordered spaghetti with lobster and Roman ordered ribs. He said that the ribs grilled to perfection, and I was obsessed with the spaghetti. It was so so good but I was too full to finish it all. Like I said, every bite was a touch from heaven.
I was brought an apron for my lobster, which made me giggle, but the truth is you actually need one. When you try to break it the sauce splashes all over the place.
Every dish was served as if it was a painting. Along with the food, we ordered two glasses of wine. It was the perfect ending to our Italy trip.
Address:
Via XX Settembre, 20, 23829 Varenna LC
Open everyday from 12:00-14:20 18:30-22:30
Sentiero Del Viandante: A gorgeous trail between villages
We read that there are a lot of walking trails in Lake Como, and we were happy about it because we love to walk.
We thought of which trail to take, and we ended up taking Dervio, which was 20 meters away from our apartment. There are signs which is really handy.
We had no idea where it was going to take us, but we decided to just go. It seemed like an easy trail, and the view to the lake was stunning. We walked past tiny villages and enjoyed the walk. At some point it was going uphill and we saw that the rest of the trail was the same.
The trail uphill is really neat, and it goes through forests and villages. You can’t get lost since there are signs everywhere. It was not hard, but just exhausting since it was 3 hours of just going uphill.
We came across a restaurant, but unfortunately it was closed, and we ended up going to Pozzallo. We just kept going on the dirt road to the train station Staz di Piona.
It could get a little confusing to get there, so just see which trail you’re on. Keep going straight on the road (don’t make a right, or it will be an extra hour of walking).
If you don’t feel like walking all the way back, you can take a taxi for about 20 euros to the train to get to Dervio.
We took trail B. It should take about 4-5 hours without stopping. We stopped quite a lot to take pictures, so we were done after 7 hours of walking (including a mistake that added an extra hour.)
It was absolutely worth it. It is one of the most beautiful trails we ever took.
Cocktails by the Lake
After our day trip to Belano we wanted to stop by a cafe. We ended up at Lierna village, where we found Pizzeria Riva Bianca that is right on the lake. We got some cocktails. I ordered campari and roman ordered aperol spritz. They were both refreshing and it was so nice to drink them overlooking the gorgeous lake.
I wouldn’t know if the food was good since we just ordered cocktails, but it is a great place to drink some coffee or a cocktail and enjoy the beautiful view. One more thing, there is a bathing area downhill from the restaurant. There are chairs and in the summer it’s the perfect place to go for a dip in the lake.
Address:
Via Riva Bianca, 9-10, 23827 Lierna LC
I hope my post helped you. If so, I would very much like you to respond here in the comments, and if you have any more questions, then you are also welcome to ask them in the comments or on the blog’s social networks: Facebook and Instagram. Looking for more information about lake Como ? I have in the blog more posts about lake Como and posts about Italy.
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More posts I wrote on that
It’s hard not to fall for Bellagio
The stunning Bellano town in Lake Como
Lucca – An incredible city in Tuscany
10 Best things to do in Rome
10 days in Italy – Our itinerary from central to north Italy
Things to do in Venice – The city of bridges and canals
Things to do in Sibiu, Romania
Information about the city of Pushkar, Rajasthan India – Recommended things to do in Pushkar