Italy - Lake Como

Well, the vacation that I spent the better part of 2.5 years dreaming of and planning has come and gone. In the blink of an eye. We were thrown smack dab back into the middle of a blazing hot Texas summer, and while I love Texas, I already miss the Italian sun, the smell of jasmine everywhere, the sound of tiny espresso cups clinking against porcelain saucers, and the promise of gelato around every corner :) Oh Italy, how I love you so!

I’ve had many requests to share the details of our incredible two week trip through Italy and quite honestly, I don’t even know where to start! I feel that I am just about a walking thesaurus on planning a trip to Italy so if you have any questions after reading everything, please feel free to ask! If there’s anything I love talking about more than food and fitness…it’s Italy :)

I think the best way to tackle this and share all the deets is to break it down by each location. That way you can easily have all the good info divided up by location for your own planning purposes! In this segment, I want to talk all about beautiful Lake Como!

Lake Como

A honeymooners paradise and the PERFECT place to start your Italian adventure. We absolutely LOVED Lake Como! The many villages on Lake Como are all incredibly dreamy and picturesque, and seemed to operate at a slower pace than the rest of the world. Seriously, it’s nearly impossible to put the camera away!

Getting there - Lake Como was just an easy 30ish minute train ride from Milan! From the airport, we took a train to Milano Centrale station, and then boarded a different train. 30ish minutes later, we had been transported directly to the beautiful foothills of Como’s surrounding mountains. It was incredibly easy!

Where to stay - because there are so many different villages peppered throughout the lake, it can be difficult to decide which one to base yourself out of. We ended up deciding on Como, because the train goes directly there and we were able to walk straight to our hotel after a long travel day from the US! The decision was a smart one. We were grateful to be able to hop off the train and walk straight to our hotel without having to worry about taking another form of transportation up the lake. Plus, Como surprised us with its charm! We were a little bummed we didn’t have more time to explore it.

We stayed at the Palace Hotel in Como, which was incredible! It was way nicer than I was expecting and our rooms were extremely clean and felt very luxurious! Breakfast was included with our room and let me tell ya…this ain’t no Holiday-Inn-Texas-shaped-waffle-weird-looking-sausage-breakfast. No. This was *chef’s kiss* fresh cheeses, cold cuts, hard boiled eggs, sauteed veggies, assortment of breads and pastries (like chocolate croissants), fruit, and the BEST hotel coffee I’ve ever had. For real. I’d fly all the way back to Italy just for one more breakfast at the Palace Hotel.

What to do - We only had one full day here, and we spent the day taking the public ferry up the lake to visit the different villages. We really enjoyed this! Apart from having to pay careful attention to the ferry schedule, we loved getting to wander and roam the many stairs and streets of the lakeside villages at our own leisurely pace. We visited Bellagio, Varenna, and Cernobbio and have no regrets! We were supposed to visit Menaggio as well but we ran out of time. Just means we get to go back :)

If you are going to take the public ferry, we HIGHLY recommend getting up early and visiting the ticket office to purchase your tickets. The line will become very long and they have been known to sell out. Avoid this by purchasing your day pass first thing in the morning and arrive to board your ferry 10ish minutes before its departure.

Visit Villa D’Este. I’m so sad we didn’t get the chance to do this! I have heard really wonderful things about this villa and its restaurant. You must have a reservation in order to gain access to the property though, and we never made a reservation. We walked by the gates and it looked magical!

Where to Eat - Since we were only in Lake Como for a short time and had a big breakfast at our hotel both days, we didn’t do much eating at restaurants! We did enjoy our first official Italian meal at a place called Bar Ai Portici. The sandwiches and pizza were great and we sat outside at a table next to the Cathedral and listened to a local play a guitar. It was the perfect meal to kick off our trip!

Get gelato at Gelateria Lariana! I had the stracciatella (like a sweet cream with chocolate pieces) and amarena (cherry, which happened to be my favorite flavor everywhere we went). It was so good and ended up being one of my favorites of the whole trip.

While our time here was short, we really loved starting our Italy adventures in Lake Como! It was a nice relaxing way to adjust to the time change since we didn’t have scheduled tours or museums to walk through. If you are heading to Italy and desire to just be….Lake Como is the perfect place to do just that.