Como and how I found out about it
I am not going to lie to you, the first time I heard about Como was the time I read that George Clooney bought a villa there :))
I don’t know if he still has it there, but it was definitely a good decision. The lake and surroundings are pretty stunning.
Como city
Como city is very close to Switzerland border, it’s even kind of blended with Chiasso city in Switzerland. Chiasso and the surrounding cities (the biggest one is Lugano) belongs to the italian part of Switzerland where the majority of people speaks italian.
Como is not a big city, around 84 000 people living there and it is situated just next to the Como lake.
Why to go there?
The main idea for us to go there was just simply to enjoy the slow walk by the Como lake, enjoy italian architecture, gelato and pizza 😉 And these are the things that we did there 🙂
The city itself is quite busy with narrow streets, so we just parked our car in the underground parking place and went for a walk in a city centre. The interesting thing about parking was that they let us into the parking, but there were no free places, all parking was full 🙂 Usually they do not let any cars inside, unless there’s at least one free spot 😉 So we just had to make 3-4 drives around all the parking area until one car left and we finally got our spot 🙂
Old town itself is very cosy with many narrow streets, small welcoming shops and charming inside yards 🙂
The biggest attraction in the old town is the Como cathedral which was started to build in 1396 and finally finished just in 1770 🙂 I took a picture of it from the other side, not the main entrance, because there was some kind of celebration by the entrance and it was super crowdy 🙂
Very close to the cathedral there’s a Como tourist information centre which offers free maps and all other kind of information you need. Info here: Como tourist information centre.
Como lake
Como lake is pretty huge and to walk all around it would take at least 3-4 days, so we just enjoyed a slow stroll by it’s Como city bank 🙂
The bank is quite crowded, but if you walk little further there are fewer and fewer people walking around.
I saw quite many water planes flying around and landing on the lake as well, which is a pretty cool thing to see 🙂
On the bank as well there are few mansions, but most of them are under construction now, so there was not so much to see, maybe in a couple of years 🙂
As well, the views from the lake to the small cities surrounding the lake are very lovely, so if you have any chance to take a boat and swim around, don’t miss it 🙂
Pizza and gelato
So the last thing on our bucket list in Como was to enjoy local pizza and local gelato, which we did 🙂
There are plenty of choices where to eat so we just went into the one which had many people already eating there 😉 If it’s crowded, it should be good, right?
The pizza costs around 10 euros which is a quite good price, but other stuff like steaks, even pasta or more sophisticated food costs quite a lot, I got a feeling that Como city makes prices for Swiss tourists :)) I am maybe wrong, but the prices are definitely lower if you go more south 🙂
Gelato was 2 euros and it was soooooo gooood 🙂 I love italian gelato! It is the beast ice cream you can get anywhere in the world 🙂
My conclusion
Como is definitely worth visiting, but if you have very limited time in Italy, I would maybe suggest to focus on more mainstream cities like Florence, Venice, Rome or Naples 🙂 But if you happen to be in the north of Italy, it’s definitely the place to enjoy lake views, gelato and pizza 🙂
Arrivederci! 🙂
P.S. do not forget to follow me on Instagram: @golookexplore
