A week in Lake Como & Milan

Italy is a country of variances, from the bleached sandy beaches and authentic coastline of Puglia, to richly historic Rome, the northern region of Lombardy is known for its lush greenery, its Capital Milan, and of course its Lakes. Tucked underneath the bordering Swiss mountains the towns of Bellagio and Varenna are made of thriving and bustling shops and restaurants, with 1000’s of tourists flocking to the Lakes each year, do not be put off by the vast quantity of accents you can hear, with bars tucked down skinny side streets, paper table cloths and cheese shops hidden in caves there is so much to do if you don’t mind looking for it.

We opted to stay in Varenna for convenience, it’s on the main train line from Milan so it made an easy base in which to explore. We opted for an Airbnb that was carved into the mountainside and was a short walk from the train station and restaurants, I will say its quiet out of season. With regular ferries doing triangular trips from Varenna, Bellagio and Menaggio you can flit between the three with ease until late at night which is when places like Bellagio come alive even in the Autumn.

Because the land is so lush we headed out for a few long hikes into the mountains, some of which were precarious and the footpaths weren’t always clearly signposted but we caught some great views, not passing a soul for hours and taking in the more authentic side of Italy. As always Gelato is in abundance in Como, along with some incredible local produce and wine all pretty reasonable if eating in is your only option. We chose September which was peppered with rain, cloud and sun but as with most mountainous places as quickly as it came, it disappeared.

We had a week in Como which was more than enough as out of season and with some serious rain storms it wasn’t always hiking or exploring weather. With trains running every hour and taking only an hour into Milan we went into the city for shopping, both indie and vintage (it does not disappoint) more wine and to take in the incredible architecture and thriving art scene. One thing we messed up with, and do so every time is food, we all know Italian’s take their food seriously but do not expect to eat between 3 & 7pm, we naively thought that as it was a city there may be exceptions but there was not, although we found a singular gelato shop selling bueno ice cream and it was probably the highlight of my trip, so there is that!

We loved Como as its so easy to get to but feels entirely remote, the perks of being able to get lost in the hillside one day, grab lunch on the harbour another, and spent a late night drinking wine and watching the sunset was the perfect mix for us, also its convenience to pop into Milan if you are at a loose end of just fancy a change of scenery made it all the better.

Here are a small selection of the places we visited, the best thing about all of these towns is exploring and using your intuition. We found some incredible food and wine shops that looked uninspiring from the outside but were treasure troves inside.

Enoteca Principessa Bellagio Great Wine in Bellagio

Villa Cipressi A beautiful Spot for exploring in Varenna

In Vinas Veritas A cracking wine shop tucked down a side street that serves wine to drink and cicchetti

Castello di Vezio - Castle Amazing Views and architecture

Shallo Beer Shop Milan Because what would our guide be without mentioning beer?