HOME » POPULAR ITALIAN DESTINATIONS » COMO TRAVEL GUIDE » COMO THINGS TO DO GUIDE
Como Travel Guide Culture History Food and Wine Things to Do Plan My Trip
About this guide: This guide to things to do in Como was written by the Italian-born travel specialists at Trips 2 Italy, a custom tour operator that has designed hand-crafted Italian vacations since 2003. Every recommendation below reflects the same first-hand knowledge our team draws on when we build a private Como itinerary around a traveler’s interests, dates, and pace. Read it for your research, then let us translate it into a trip designed entirely around you.
Begin inside the walls. The Duomo, four centuries in the making, rewards an unhurried hour for its Gothic facade, Renaissance portals, and tapestry-hung nave, with the striped medieval Broletto beside it and the two Plinys watching from the front. From there the Roman grid unfolds naturally: Piazza San Fedele with its ancient church, Porta Torre rising over the southern gate, and the shopping streets that make the walled city the liveliest quarter on this shore of Lombardy.
Then give the lakefront its due. Piazza Cavour opens the sequence, and the gardens westward hold the Tempio Voltiano with its instruments of the electrical revolution and the war memorial rising from Sant’Elia’s futurist drawings, while the breakwater walk east ends at the steel wings of Life Electric with water on both sides. Few cities anywhere deliver this much within a single flat, beautiful mile.
Timing and access are where planning earns its keep. We schedule the Duomo for its quiet hours, pair the walled city with guides who read its layers fluently, and sequence the lakefront for the light, morning clarity toward the mountains, evening gold on the facades. The difference between seeing Como and being carried through it gracefully is exactly the difference we design for.
Since 1894 the funicular has hauled Como up its eastern mountainside to Brunate, the balcony village fifteen hundred feet above the rooftops, in seven minutes of steepening drama. The car climbs through gardens and tunnels until the lake suddenly spreads below, the city’s grid legible at your feet, the first basin shining north toward the Alps. It is the best orientation lesson in the region and one of its purest pleasures.
Brunate itself repays the ride. The village grew as a belle epoque resort, and its lanes wander past Liberty-style villas with wrought-iron fantasies and views their builders chose carefully. A half-hour walk continues up to the Faro Voltiano, the octagonal lighthouse raised for Volta’s centenary in 1927, whose balcony on a clear day reaches from the lake to Monte Rosa on the horizon. Cafes and terraces along the way serve the panorama with the coffee, and the village church, art nouveau villas, and shaded lanes reward an unhurried hour before the descent.
We fold Brunate into itineraries with intention: an early ascent before the day warms, coffee on a terrace over the void, the lighthouse walk for the panorama, then either the funicular back down or, for walkers, the old mule paths descending through chestnut woods to the city. Paired with an afternoon on the water, it makes the classic perfect Como day.
Como’s evening walk is the city’s daily masterpiece. The route runs from Piazza Cavour west along the gardens, past the marina and the Tempio Voltiano, to the gates of Villa Olmo, the grand neoclassical villa whose lakeside park is open to all, and the full round trip covers a leisurely, level two miles with the lake beside you the whole way. Locals of every generation walk it as a ritual, from young families to elegantly unhurried retirees, and joining them at the same golden hour is the fastest way to stop feeling like a visitor and start feeling like a resident of the lake’s most civilized address.
The other direction has become an icon in its own right. The diga foranea, the breakwater promenade, extends into the lake east of the piers, and at its far end rise the twin steel sails of Life Electric, Daniel Libeskind’s 2015 tribute to Volta. Walking out to it at dusk, with the city lights kindling behind you, Brunate’s lamps above, and the water dark on both sides, is the single most photographed experience in modern Como and fully deserves to be.
We time passeggiata evenings deliberately, an aperitivo on the piazza as the light lowers, the walk as the mountains turn violet, dinner inside the walls afterward, and for travelers celebrating something, we arrange a photographer to make the hour permanent. The passeggiata costs nothing and demands nothing; composed well, it becomes the memory that outlasts the monuments.
The city is the lake’s front door, and the water is best pushed open privately. We arrange launches with skippers from the piers at Piazza Cavour, from golden-hour cruises of the first basin, gliding beneath Brunate’s cliffs past gardens and boathouses, to full days that reach the celebrated mid-lake villages and return as the mountains catch the last light. With a private boat, the lake runs on your schedule, pausing wherever a view or a swim or a waterside lunch suggests itself.
The first basin alone justifies an outing. Within minutes of the piers, the shoreline turns theatrical: villas stacked above the water, the white domes and gardens of the western shore, seaplanes from the historic aviation club landing beside you, and Como itself composing and recomposing behind the stern. Travelers who assume they must transfer up the lake for beauty discover it begins at the city’s breakwater.
For those settling in longer, the piers also make Como the most practical base on the water: the whole lake fans out from here, and day plans can chase the weather, mid-lake gardens on a clear morning, museums and silk ateliers if clouds arrive. Our itineraries treat the boat as the city’s second street, woven through the stay rather than saved for a single outing.
The Museo della Seta, the silk museum, leads the second tier that would headline smaller cities: looms, printing tables, dye laboratories, and pattern archives that explain how this town came to dress the world’s fashion houses, and we pair it with atelier visits where the craft is still practiced. The Tempio Voltiano follows, its batteries and instruments the relics of the moment electricity became usable, displayed in a lakefront rotunda built like a shrine.
The churches reward unhurried visits: Sant’Abbondio, the Romanesque masterpiece with twin bell towers and a frescoed apse in a quiet precinct ten minutes from the center, and San Fedele, the medieval heart of the grid, with carved portals and a piazza made for lingering. Architecture lovers add the Casa del Fascio behind the Duomo, Terragni’s luminous rationalist prism, and the Novocomum near the stadium, both best understood with a guide who tells their story accessibly.
Above it all, the Castello Baradello offers the quiet counterpoint: a medieval tower on a wooded hill south of the center, reached by an easy walk, with views across the city, the lake, and on clear days the whole Brianza. It is where Como goes for Sunday air, and travelers who make the climb usually have the battlements nearly to themselves.
The mountains behind the city are laced with trails. From Brunate, paths continue along the ridge to alpine meadows, stone hamlets, and rifugio terraces with the lake glittering far below, and the descent through chestnut woods back to the city makes a satisfying half-day loop. South of the walls, the Baradello hill and the greenway of the Spina Verde park offer gentler walks through woods studded with archaeological traces of the city’s earliest settlements.
The water invites participation as much as contemplation. Early mornings see rowers and paddleboarders on the glassy first basin, kayak outings trace the shoreline beneath the villas, and the lake’s famous breezes further north serve sailors ambitiously. Cyclists use Como as a base for both lakeside rides and the legendary climbs of the surrounding hills, including routes made famous by the great autumn one-day race that finishes beside the lake.
We match these to ability and appetite, an easy ridge walk with a picnic, a guided kayak morning, a supported ride with a following car, as part of our active trips in Italy. In Como the effort always ends somewhere pleasant: a terrace, a swim, an aperitivo with the mountains you just walked turning gold across the water.
The lake itself offers the classic excursions: the celebrated mid-lake villages with their gardens and ferry-linked shores make a full and beautiful day by private boat, and the western shore’s villas and botanical parks reward a slower amble north. In the other direction, Milan lies under an hour by rail, close enough for a morning with The Last Supper or the Duomo rooftops and an evening return to the calm of the lake.
The Swiss border sits minutes away, putting Lugano and its own lake within an easy half day, and the Valtellina’s terraced vineyards, an hour and a half northeast, combine dramatic mountain scenery with cellar visits among the stone walls. Closer still, the silk district’s ateliers and the hill sanctuaries above the Brianza fill half days without ever feeling like travel, and Bergamo’s walled upper town, itself a UNESCO treasure, sits an easy drive east for travelers collecting Lombardy’s hill cities.
The art is choosing the two or three excursions that serve your particular trip, and sequencing them around the weather and the light. As part of a custom trip to Italy, we compose Como stays where every day trip departs effortlessly, boat, driver, or train timed to the minute, and returns to the same lakefront evening ritual. Como rewards travelers who resist seeing everything, and we design itineraries that make that restraint feel like luxury.
Como deserves more than a template. Since 2003, Trips 2 Italy has designed private Italian vacations one traveler at a time, hand selecting every experience based on what you tell us rather than fitting you into a predefined package. Our Italian-born team plans Como with the knowledge of people who call Italy home, from the silk ateliers of the walled city to the funicular terrace at Brunate and the blue water at the city’s doorstep, and we remain at your side throughout your trip with 24/7 assistance. Tell us how you imagine Como, and we will craft the itinerary that matches it.
From the peaks of the Dolomites to the shores of the Italian Riviera, an escorted 16-day journey through Northern Italy: Cortina, Venice, Verona, Lakes Garda, Como and Maggiore, Milan,
Set out on an unforgettable 11-day summer family adventure across Northern Italy, perfectly crafted for travelers of all ages. Begin with Milan’s iconic landmarks and vibrant atmosphere, then unwind
A romantic 12-day journey through southern Italy featuring charming towns, candlelit piazzas, ancient wonders, and breezy seaside escapes from Lecce to Bari, with experiences designed for unforgettable moments together. Starting from $7,844 per person
Pair the walled city with the heights: an unhurried visit to the Duomo and the Roman grid, then the funicular to Brunate for the panorama over the lake and the Alps. Add the evening passeggiata to the Life Electric sculpture and you have touched the city’s essence in a single day, though Como rewards far more time.
Absolutely. The seven-minute ride, running since 1894, climbs fifteen hundred feet to a belle epoque village with sweeping views over the lake and city, and a half-hour walk continues to the Faro Voltiano lighthouse, whose balcony reaches to Monte Rosa on clear days. Early morning offers the calmest cars and the sharpest light.
Life Electric is Daniel Libeskind’s 2015 steel sculpture honoring Alessandro Volta, rising at the end of Como’s breakwater promenade with water on both sides. Its paired curving sails evoke the tension between a battery’s poles, and the walk to it at dusk, with the city and Brunate lighting up behind, is modern Como’s signature experience.
Yes, and it is the finest way to meet the lake. Trips 2 Italy arranges private launches with skippers directly from the city’s piers, from golden-hour cruises of the first basin to full days reaching the mid-lake villages, paused wherever a swim, a garden, or a waterside lunch appeals.
Milan sits under an hour away by rail, Lugano and Switzerland minutes beyond the border, the mid-lake villages a boat ride north, and the Valtellina’s terraced vineyards a scenic ninety minutes northeast. We compose day trips around your interests and the weather, with every transfer arranged in advance.
In the ateliers and showrooms of the city that prints for the great fashion houses. Trips 2 Italy arranges visits that combine the Museo della Seta with private time among the designers and printers themselves, so you choose scarves and ties at the source, often with the person who made them explaining the pattern’s story.
