We have 2 days in Lake Como in mid-April and would love some suggestions on which town to stay in that will be convenient for some moderate hiking. Recommendations on accomodations would also be most welcome. Albergo Milano in Varenna has been cited on this forum several times but they must be booked as they have not responded to be emails or reservation form. Thanks!
Posted by
PNW
194 posts
From the town of Varenna (just ask where the trail starts) you can hike up to the ruined Castello Vezio. The views are quite incredible from the top.
Posted by
Alta Loma, CA, USA
1446 posts
Hi Ellyn. We stayed at Albergo Milano & it was a wonderful experience. Most places in Lake Como are closed between November & March/April so I suspect that is why they haven't responded. They always responded very quickly and professionally when I e-mailed so I'm guessing the issue is that they are closed right now for the winter.
I really liked staying in Varenna. I liked the lake-side promenade & the train goes to Varenna, unlike many of the other towns. I didn't want to get off the train & then have to find a boat with my luggage, in order to stay somewhere else. That's why I selected Varenna and I was very pleased. It's a cute little town & very relaxing.
Bellagio was a lot larger and more touristy and I really like how small and quaint Varenna was.
Posted by
Newton, MA, USA
289 posts
Agree the hike to the castle has great view at the top. Note, typical (in my experience) of RS's idea of a light hike, this one was more difficult than he notes. Also, we went after a day of rain and it was dangerous (wet rocks) but it's well-worth it.
Another good hike we discovered was walking to the smallest river in Italy (it's described in his book). We discovered we could go through the woods (and saw that little cemetery on the way) instead of the road. It was one of the more wonderful days of our trip. It was raining quite hard (we had raincoats) but not as bad when in the woods and just hiking along this trail enjoying the peace and discovering just how big the snails get (they were climbing a lot of rock walls we walked by) was a great time and a good hike.