Exploring Lago Di Como, Italy

Day one and day two in Como was like night and day. Read about our first day in the rain here, whereas day two was a beautiful, sun-filled, hot day in the high 80s! Compared to the empty streets the day before, this beautiful day was Saturday and all the weekenders came out to enjoy the sun by the lake. The streets were absolutely packed with tourists! The ferry that we took to Bellagio the day prior (which we bought tickets in like 5 minutes, and had basically no line to board), now had at least 300+ people in line just to buy tickets. 

We started our morning walking to the nearby funicular to the hilltop town of Brunate. A funicular is like a tram or trolley system, and it climbed the nearly vertical slope for a 10 minute ride to the top. Brunate itself is a super tiny little town, just with a handful of souvenir shops or cafes at the top, but we opted to continue climbing and set out for a hike to the lighthouse at the peak. It took about 45 minutes and was a fairly steep climb up a cobblestone pathway and felt like a great workout to start the day. The view from the top overlooking the lake was beautiful and highly recommended! 

When returning back down the funicular around 11am, once again, we realized had just missed a tourist rush, as the funicular line to buy tickets now had 100+ people in line, compared to zero when we arrived at 8:30am. Great timing for us :)

We found somewhere to grab a quick lunch, and began to plot our afternoon. Our plan the entire time was to rent a boat in Como (like we did in Capri!) but the few companies we got a hold of said to call the day-of, an hour before, to see if they had availability. Lo and behold, with the summer weather, all the boats were booked up by the time we were sat for lunch. One company said maybe at 5pm call back later, but nope, when we called back later, unfortunately the lucky boat-renters that grabbed it that morning opted to stay out all day. Ugh, I was so bummed! I was so looking forward to renting a boat!! In hindsight, we should have tried to grab a boat first thing in the morning… but I wanted to be on the water during the peak heat midday. Oh well… 

Strangely, with 89* weather, no one was swimming in the lake. We were told by locals (and signs posted everywhere) that “the lake is very dangerous and no swimming allowed.” This confounded us, because the boat rental companies advertised jumping off/swimming in the lake…. It was so terribly hot, we were desperate to take a dip, so we started researching where that was allowed. Lake Como is huge, so there were other designated beach areas in other regions of the lake but those would have been 1-2+ hour ferry rides away. The only walkable swimming area was Villa Olma, around 1 mile out of the city, where you could swim and lounge at Lido Villa Olma. Since the plan to rent a boat had fallen through, we had all day free and decided to go check it out. 

Honestly, it was pretty weird. You pay 10 euros per person to enter, and can rent a lounge chair for another 5 euro per person – but all lounge chairs were taken by the time we got there around 2pm, so we only had the option to lay our towels on the grass area. It was absolutely packed with people just a foot or two away from you at every angle – not at all like our typical beach experience back at home at the spacious beaches of Santa Cruz. Luckily we found an open couch area to get away from the crowd a little bit (that didn’t require renting), and we rotated between jumping in the lake and sunbathing in the brutal heat. 

There was also a pool, but it was like full-on kid zone and also packed with people. Shaun saw a sign that said swim caps were required to enter the pool, so we didn’t even go try to take a dip in the pool at all.

The swimming area of the lake was a dedicated roped-off zone with a lifeguard perched above, and the water was a little dirty with algae and other debris, but refreshing nonetheless. I’m convinced that all the “no swimming! danger!” signs around the city are just a marketing ploy to redirect the tourists to these pay-to-swim areas, because there was literally no difference in the shorelines. I would’ve preferred to jump in ourselves and lounge at our own little zone (outside of the lido!), but oh well. It was an experience, for sure. 

That evening, we indulged in a multi-stop meal, starting with aperitifs (aperol spritz and bruschetta) before pizza at another restaurant. It was a lovely evening in the summer heat, and we packed up that night to catch an early morning train to Cinque Terre the next day…