Travelling from Switzerland to Italy

There are several passes from Switzerland to Italy. Another route is Spesa to Domodossola to Stresa, just north of Milan. You can come through Locarno then to Como an hour away. Como itself is not that nice. Bellagio and Varenna are small and nice but dead at night - it's eerily quiet on the lake at night. Mennagio is a bargain basement Bellagio. They are cute, but there is nothing much to do. Maybe rent. boat. We went on the mini-train tour around Bellagio and it was not worth the 6 eu. Varenna is very cute and nice, and we spent a few hours hiking around. I guess it depends on what your goal is. They are not really towns - they are tourist hubs which have been polished. There are other places that I have visited which I made more of a connection with and want to return - like Treviso by Venice, or Bergamo by Milan.