Transportation

Have you checked the rome2rio website for your local transport options? That's usually where I start. It tends to show more transportation options than Google maps, although the that's useful in many cases.

For trains in Italy I just look at the trenitalia website.

If you are using trains in Italy, download the Trenitalia app. Very easy to use. Just remember that cities must be entered in Italian and that many cities have multiple stations.

Hop the train from Borghi to Como Lago station. It’s a 7 minute trip. It will not go to and you don’t want to go to S Giovanni. The lake ferries are very close to the Como Lago station.

If you want two restaurant recommendations in Como, try Il Pomodorino wonderful dishes typical of the area or have the elephant ears (actually delicious breaded veal cutlets) at Il Pinzimonio.

If you go for lunch you can.
Otherwise you’ll need quite a bit of money, because only taxis are available after dinner time.

Thank you all for your assistance. I am planning ahead of time. I think I am just going to have to wait until we get there to get assistance with the trains/ferries, etc. We will not be there until September. I'm a little confused on the 3 or 4 different train lines. Not sure if they each go to different places or if one is less expensive than the other, etc.

Can anyone recommend that we get a train pass for the month? And, if so, any recommendations on which one? We are traveling to Florence, Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland and Venice during this time also.

I've been searcing on Trainline and a couple other train lines.... I'm
a little confused on the 3 or 4 different train lines. Not sure if
they each go to different places or if one is less expensive than the
other, etc.

Trainline is not a rail company; it's just a booking agent. Same for ItaliaRail and some others. Italy's national rail provider is Trenitalia, and Italo is a secondary provider. These are the websites you should be using for schedules and prices.

https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html
https://www.italotreno.it/en

Trenitalia has both high-speed and slower regional train service between cities and many smaller towns, and Italo is high-speed only between bigger cities. Additionally, some regions in Italy have limited commuter lines, like the Circumvesuviana in the Naples area and which you won't need to use on this trip. Anyway, do some of exploring where the trains go but it's a bit early to pre-purchase tickets for Sept.

Passes are rarely of benefit for Italy.
This is a great site for the ins-and-outs of trains in Italy and beyond:

https://www.seat61.com

"Additionally, some regions in Italy have limited commuter lines, like the Circumvesuviana in the Naples area and which you won't need to use on this trip."

Actually, you might use Trenord, which has services to Lake Como and Malpensa airport, among other places in the region. Trenitalia service goes from Milano Porta Garibaldi station to Como San Giovanni station. Trenord service goes from Milano Cadorna station to Como Nord Lago station (passing through Como Nord Borghi station on the way).

Trenitalia website: https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html
Trenord website: http://www.trenord.it/EN/

Note that as said above, even on these English website versions, you have to use Italian city names (Venezia, Milano, Roma, Firenze, Napoli).

Even Rick Steves, who still promotes train passes, agrees that they are not a good deal for Italy. You'll do much better with advance purchase tickets for any routes that have a discount for this. That includes Trenitalia trains in Italy that are IC or Freccia (Frecciarosa, Frecciargento, etc), and all Italo routes. That also includes almost all international trains.

More about trains and buying tickets here, from rail guru The Man In Seat 61: https://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm

Thank you all for your assistance. This has all been very helpful!

Actually, you might use Trenord...

Oh yes. Good call, Harold.

If you end up using a ferry, make sure you pay attention to the ferry you need to take back. Last year, my friend and I got lost taking the wrong ferry. Since we didn't KNOW we were lost, we found out when we asked where the train station was for our trip back and found there was not a train station near our ferry stop. We had to walk for miles and came close to missing our train back to Milan. I'm still not positive where we made the mistake. My Southern California culture has not prepared me for ferry travel, I hope noone else has that same problem, although it makes me laugh now......