Hello, we will be staying in the Lake Como area March 7-11. Presently I booked at Hotel Olivedo in Varenna as a base to explore the area but noticing many restaurants are closed and considering changing hotel to Como city. We are there to visit our son who is studying in Lugano. We will be coming from Florence where we are going to spend the first five nights March 2 through the 7 in Tuscany and then over to the Como area where we will fly out of Milan to come home on March 11. The only part of our time in Como that is decided is that we will be taking the Bernina Express train round-trip trip to St Moritz. We picked Varenna bc it’s east side of lake with easy access to trains to Bernina Express and airport but when looking for dining wondering if we would better off in Como city for things to do? Thought we would do Varenna on the 7th. Menaggio and Tremezzo on the 8th. Bernina express on the 9th and then Bellagio on the 10th. Airport transfer and fly out Milan on the 11th. My son would head back to Lugano at this point in kind. Essentially worried about access to dining and things to do and if como city would be better choice as base
Posted by
Paris
7312 posts
How about you ask your hotel? I would be surprised if all restaurants were closed in Varenna at that time, and you are right that Varenna is by far the most convenient base for what you want to do. A Bernina day trip is not feasible from Como, for example.
Posted by
St. Francis, WI
77 posts
The city of Como would certainly have more options than any of the smaller towns mid-lake. Are you thinking that you would then still visit each of the towns you've outlined above while staying in Como? I think that would be hard because of the winter ferry schedule. Also, it takes a while to reach mid-lake from Como on a ferry. Do some research on staying in Menaggio. Contact their tourism office which has some part-time winter hours. Menaggio is much larger than Varenna. And is a short ferry ride across the lake to Varenna allowing you to catch a train to Tirano for the Bernina Express.
Posted by
314 posts
Traveled Northern Italy Nov 2022. Stayed in Como and loved it. Had a great apt in city center and was wonderful. The ferry scheduled changed the day I got there to the winter schedule. I think if I remember correctly March is in that winter schedule. Went to the cities on the Lake and remember Bellagio was dead with one cafeteria type place open. Nice to wander but remember how closed up everything was. Other towns were a bit more lively especially if there was a market.
Posted by
Renton, WA, USA
39 posts
We really liked Como several years ago, but in late September. We stayed in Varenna in an AirBnB. If I remember correctly, we had to take the fast hydrofoil to get down to Como, and had to take a ferry to Menaggio to transfer. Therefore, to get to mid-lake you'd need to pay attention to different boat schedules.
We really enjoyed the trip to St. Moritz, very scenic, even the little towns down below the grades for the train.
Posted by
OP
8 posts
To all who were kind enough to post here I have another question… Given we have four nights to manage and want to see lake como and take Bernina express - does anyone think it might make sense that I should stay all four nights in Milan and do all day trips from there? The advantage here is there are plenty of organized tours that leave Milan into Lake Como for the day, and or into Switzerland for the Bernina Express for the day. All are pretty easy to book and then you return back to a city, which of course is lively at night and plenty to do. The other advantage to this would be that I don’t need to get a private transfer from Lake Como on the day of my departure back to US because we will already be in Milan hence saving us a good, $350 which is the price for a one-way transfer to the airport from Varenna. Our flight leaves at 10 AM so I would rather not mess around with train delays. Essentially we are coming from Florence on March 7 into this general area. Our goal was to see the lakes and ferry around a bit to see some of the beauty of midlake. We wanted to experience some walking in the gorgeous villages of Lake Como and maybe hit a villa tour or two. I have been able to find plenty of restaurants open, but the ferry schedule is weird and getting to the Bernina express is a good two hours total by train which is stressful. I’m thinking that it might be easier to do everything with Milan as the base but admittedly, I am not a big city girl and I prefer the quiet. Difficult decision given its off-season. The good thing about Milan is at least you know you are with an organized tour and you are coming back to a place that you started. We are a party of 6
Posted by
Houston, TX
10 posts
I just posted about possibility of doing Bernina Express in a day from Bellagio. I am having a hard time making it work. It would if we were staying in Varenna. Good luck!