Things to do
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Greenway del Lago di Como
A signed ten-kilometre walking route between Colonno and Cadenabbia, using old mule tracks and lakeside lanes through a string of villages. It stays close to flat and is walked in an afternoon. Buses run back along the shore road from either end of it.
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Villa Melzi
An English landscape garden running along the water south of the town, laid out in the early nineteenth century with cedars, camellias and a Japanese pond. Liszt stayed and worked here. The garden opens from spring to autumn and the walk along the shore to it is level.
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Basilica di San Giacomo
A twelfth-century Romanesque church at the top of the stepped lanes, built by masters from Como. The apse mosaic and the carved capitals are the reason to go in. It stands a few minutes up from the ferry pier and entry is free.
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Grand Hotel Tremezzo
A 1910 Art Nouveau palace facing Bellagio across the water, with a pool floating in the lake itself and the gardens of Villa Carlotta next door. The Greenway passes the door and the ferry pier is a couple of minutes along the shore to the north.
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Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni
An 1852 villa on the point at Bellagio, still family-owned, with frescoed salons and a garden running to the water where the lake divides. The pool and the private jetty sit below the terrace, and the ferry pier is a couple of minutes along the front.
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Punta Spartivento
The northern tip of the promontory, a ten-minute walk from the centre, where the lake divides into its two southern arms. It is the one place the whole geography of Como makes sense from. There is a bar on the grass and boats can be hired from the slipway.
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Villa Carlotta
A seventeenth-century villa holding Canova sculpture, set in six hectares that peak in April and May when several hundred varieties of azalea and rhododendron come out together. It faces Bellagio across the water. The house holds a museum of the villa's own history above the garden.
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Villa del Balbianello
A villa on a wooded point reached on foot from Lenno or by water taxi, with a loggia above terraced gardens that is among the most filmed places on the lake. It is run by the FAI and closes on Mondays.
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Villa Serbelloni
The estate on the point where the lake splits in two, now a Rockefeller Foundation study centre. The park is seen on a guided walk booked through the tourist office rather than wandered. Walks go twice a day in season and numbers on each are capped.
