Lago di Como

My next stop included a stint in Como, which is about 45 mins north of Milano, situated on Lake Como, right next to the Swiss border. I actually have some friends that have been studying here the entire semester (lucky them), so stopping here on my way up to Switzerland was a no-brainer.

I took a day trip to Milano, just to get to know the city, and found out that I wasn’t really missing much. Even my travel-guide book said that there is not much to do in Milano, because it is Italy’s primary industrial and commercial city. Although I do go and visit Il Duomo and went up to the roof and walked all around it. That was actually a lot of fun, but other than that, I walked around the city, through some parks, saw a medieval castle, and went to the Palazzo dell’Arte, before heading back to Como,

I took the next day and went and explored around the Lake. Gorgeous, gorgeous lake. The small and quaint town of Como is located right on one of the southern ends of the lake (the lake is shaped like an upside-down Y giving it to southern tips) and is cradled by mountains that are covered in green, with houses and villas peeking out on the hillsides. Lake Como is actually pretty big and it extends up into Switzerland and has plenty of small towns all around its coasts. I explored around two of these towns, Lenno and Bellaggio (that’s all I could fit in a day) and simply enjoyed the beauty of the place. I found out that George Clooney owns a villas here on the lake, and was pointed out from a distance while on the boat ride.

Exploring the water edge of these towns was very interesting because of how easy it was to walk around. While you cant walk around this huge lake completely because of the mountains, the places where there is life was very active and pleasant to be around. Cafes, shops, hotels, and private residences make up the majority of the lakes edge, and having this mix worked very well in these towns. Combined with beautiful natural setting, all these towns were great to be around, people were out shopping, sun-bathing, eating, or just taking a stroll through the parks and gardens.

Whlie in Lenno, I was able to explore around a Villa Balbianello, which is on a tip that jets outs into the water and was originally built by one of the Cardinals of Como, back in the 18th century. This villa was also the film location of a few scenes from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (sorry, I’m a huge SW fan) If you recall Queen Amidals’s villa on “Naboo” where she later gets married, yea well that was the spot where I was. It was also the location for part of the newest chapter in the James Bond saga, “Casino Royale”.

As for Como, well that’s about all, I was glad I was able to visit my friends while here, and glad they took some time to hang out especially since they very busy while working on their final projects to finish out the semester.

I am excited about the next days in Switzerland, before I go to Turkey at the end of the week, and really start getting into all my waterfront cities.



View of Como, from the funiculare.


The mountains and house surrounding the lake.


Villa Balbianello.



The view from Villa Balbianello.