Alternatives to Bellagio: every lake town in Italy that is not on the Como ferry timetable

Nemi

Province: Roma · 521 m

The smallest comune in the Castelli Romani, perched at 521 meters above a volcanic crater lake the Romans called the mirror of Diana.

Orta San Giulio

Province: Novara · 294 m

1 h 46 min from Bellagio by car

A promontory facing an islet basilica, with a UNESCO complex of Francis-of-Assisi chapels on the hill above.

Gardone Riviera

Province: Brescia · 71 m

2 h 32 min from Bellagio by car

A western Garda lakeshore town whose hillside holds an estate turned into a monument to one man's self-image.

Passignano sul Trasimeno

Province: Perugia · 289 m

5 h 32 min from Bellagio by car

A near-peninsula on the northern shore of Lake Trasimeno, on the road Hannibal closed when he ambushed the Romans in 217 BC.

Malcesine

Province: Verona · 89 m

3 h 22 min from Bellagio by car

The northernmost Veneto town on Lake Garda, where Goethe was nearly arrested for sketching the Castello Scaligero in September 1786.

Bellano

Province: Lecco · 202 m

23 min from Bellagio by car

An eastern shore town where the Pioverna cut a gorge through fifteen million years of rock before reaching the water.

Tremezzina

Province: Como · 209 m

20 min from Bellagio by car

The 2014 merger of four Lake Como villages that holds Villa Carlotta, Isola Comacina and the UNESCO Sacro Monte di Ossuccio.

Limone sul Garda

Province: Brescia · 65 m

2 h 58 min from Bellagio by car

The northernmost lemon-growing town in the world, at 46 degrees north on the western shore of Lake Garda, reached by road only in 1932.

Bondone

Province: Trento · 720 m

2 h 56 min from Bellagio by car

A two-village commune above Lake Idro at the Lombard border, with a Lodron castle on the cliff between them.

Cannobio

Province: Verbano-Cusio-Ossola · 214 m

1 h 56 min from Bellagio by car

A medieval lake town at 214 meters on Maggiore's western shore, host to one of the largest Sunday markets on the lake.