We decided to take the train to Lake Como on Thursday since it’s only about an hour from Milan.  We took the train around 9:30 into Varenna.  The train was packed. Many people were standing in the aisles.  It takes about ten minutes to walk down to the lake and most people immediately got in line for the ferry.  We took a left turn to walk along the water on this beautiful stone path.  There were quiet a few people walking with us.  There are a bunch of restaurants with seating over the water, but they have terrible reviews.  There are also a lot of areas to just take a picture and you can go down to the water too.  The water was pretty cold, but crystal clear.  We saw quite a few fish throughout the day.  

We hiked up through the tiny pedestrian street/alley to get a panini from a local shop.  Jef also stopped at a bakery for focaccia and a cannoli, both he claimed were out of this world.  We checked out the local church and rested at a pew for a few moments.  We find churches are the coldest and best places to rest a bit. We walked by Villa Mosastario thinking we might go inside, but the line outside was so long and we could see a line of people waiting to take pictures just as they entered.  We knew that we would not enjoy our time there. 

We walked back down to the ferry station. The tickets that you can buy online were sold out and the line for tickets was at least half an hour long.  You can buy one ticket and use it to go on the ferry all day.  We decided to just get on the first ferry that landed and it took us to Menaggio. There were fewer people waiting to get on that ferry.  There were also fewer people in the town.  It was another beautiful town on the lake.  We wandered around, took pictures, stopped in a coffee shop for a mid afternoon pick me up. Then we went back to the ferry and took it over to Belaggio. There were A LOT of people there. 

The town is picturesque, just as much as the other two, but for some reason, this one is the town everyone wants to go to.  My husband and I wondered if it was because of something in pop culture that we don’t know about. In any case, Belaggio was similar to Varenna. You could walk along the shoreline, which has both a promenade and an area with shops and restaurants or you could climb up a narrow pedestrian passageway to more shops.  The lines for the gelato shops were all very long.  I stopped and looked in a glass shop that they had to limit the number of customers because everything was so fragile and there were just too many people out and about.  I bought a couple of postcards at the oldest gelato shop in the town.  I think it said it has been there since 1919.  It was similar to an old general store.  We went inside the church in Belaggio as well. Then headed down the hill to get in line for the ferry.  

We decided to take an earlier train back and eat dinner in Milan.  The train was so crowded that we had to stand in the aisle.  Before we got to the first stop, the train stopped in the middle of nowhere for about 30 minutes.  When it got to the station, my husband’s feet were bothering him and he wanted to get off.  It was such a last minute decision that we forgot my backpack.  I ran back to the door, but they locked and we couldn’t get on the train.  The station had no one there except another train that was stopped. My husband talked to the conductor and he called the conductor of the train we got off and asked him to search the train when he got to Milan.  He told us to take the next train to the next station where there were actual workers.  The same train would come through again an hour later.  We finally found someone who could speak English and he called the conductor (we had a paper with his number and the train number) to see if they found our bag. They did not.  We decided to just board the same train and search it ourselves.  We found our bag!! We jumped off that train and got on the first train to Milan.  No checked our tickets at all that day.  

I would not recommend going to Lake Como during the summer.  I thought that a it was ridiculously crowded when we went. The train ride was especially crazy.  Lake Como and the towns we visited were lovely.  It reminded me a lot of Switzerland.  I thought it was a nice get away for the day as long as you are prepared for the number of people involved.