The best small lake towns that eat well in Lombardia
The lakes of Lombardia cook differently from the plain behind them. Perch fillets come fried and laid over saffron rice, whitefish is salted and dried into missoltini, and the olive groves on the western shore of Garda press an oil light enough to finish a plate of lavarello without burying it. The towns themselves are built of grey stone and stucco painted ochre and dusty pink, stacked on slopes that drop straight into water, with jetties, plane trees and lemon terraces holding the last of the heat into October. Spring and early autumn are the good months, when the ferries still run properly and the dining rooms are not turning tables at speed.
Most visitors arrive with one itinerary already written: the train to Como, the boat, and a long lunch somewhere on the first shore they reach. Sirmione absorbs a comparable crowd on Garda, its castle causeway and thermal spas packed from Easter until late September, and the restaurant terraces along the promenade priced for people who will not come back. There is nothing wrong with either place. There is simply very little space in them between June and August, and the cooking suffers for the volume.
The shorelines run on for a long way past the famous stops. The same lake fish, the same oil, the same cellars of Valtellina red and Lugana white turn up in smaller harbours further along the water, where a kitchen might have a dozen covers and a guide inspector has still made the trip. These are the towns on this list: small, on the shore, and worth planning a meal around.
Of the 65 communes we have mapped in Lombardia, 14 qualify as lake towns that eat well: each sits on a lake shore, and a dining guide has named a table in each. This list is the small ones, 6 in all, ordered smallest first. The smallest, Varenna, has 693 residents.
Elsewhere in the catalogue: The 8 best small towns worth staying overnight in Lombardia and The best small towns with a serious restaurant in Lombardia.
Varenna
Why visit Varenna
Varenna sits on the eastern shore of Lake Como at the point where the lake forks into the Como and Lecco branches, opposite Bellagio and Menaggio. Local fishermen founded the village in 769.
In 1126 it was destroyed by Como during the wars between the lake's communes, and in 1169 it absorbed the refugees from the destroyed Isola Comacina. The streets fall in a steep grid toward the water, with the lakefront passerella running between the houses and the lake.
The Castello di Vezio, above the village on a spur reached by a 30-minute climb, was a Lombard watchpost reused through the Middle Ages. Villa Monastero, on the lakefront, started in the 12th century as a Cistercian convent and now runs a two-kilometer botanical garden along the shore.
The frazione of Fiumelatte hosts one of the shortest rivers in Italy, 250 meters from spring to lake.
Hosteria del Platano, Visteria have been named by a guide.
What to see in Varenna
- Castello di Vezio. Lombard-era watchpost on a spur above the village, reached by a 30-minute climb with 160 meters of elevation gain.
- Villa Monastero. Former 12th-century Cistercian convent on the lakefront, now a museum and convention center with a 2-kilometer botanical garden along the shore.
- Villa Cipressi. Sixteenth-to-nineteenth-century lakefront villa next to Villa Monastero, with terraced gardens descending to the water.
How to get to Varenna
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Monza is roughly 62 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through October is the working season. The ferries from Bellagio and Menaggio run frequently, the villa gardens open in late March, and the lake stays mild enough to swim from June onward. July and August are crowded: 693 residents host thousands of day visitors, and the lakefront fills with photo tripods at sunset.
Torno
Why visit Torno
Torno sits on the eastern shore of Lake Como, five kilometres north of the city of Como and forty-five from Milan. The village climbs in narrow lanes from the small port up the steep slope behind it, a core compact enough to cover on foot in fifteen minutes.
Above the village stands a second, older church, its marble portal carved by the Maestri Comacini in the 16th century, a quieter counterpart to the more elaborate church below near the port. The church nearer the port was first mentioned in 1208, in correspondence between Pope Innocent III and the abbot of Sant'Abbondio of Como, and its Romanesque bell tower predates the rest of the structure, including the rose window, frescoes and 1480 portal added later.
Outside the built-up part of the village, at the lake edge, the villa grounds hold the spring at the centre of the town's reputation, and the villa itself has passed through a long list of owners since it was built. The village, in other words, is arranged around two poles: a compact inhabited core stacked on the hillside above its harbour, and an isolated lakeside property outside it that has drawn attention, scientific and otherwise, for far longer than the village itself has been documented.
Il Sereno Al Lago, Al Lago del Sereno Hotel have been named by a guide.
What to see in Torno
- Chiesa di Santa Tecla. Romanesque-Gothic church first documented in 1208, with a Gothic rose window, statue niche and entrance dated 1480.
- Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista. Romanesque parish church above the village, with a marble portal carved by the Maestri Comacini in the 16th century.
- Villa Pliniana. Villa at the lake's edge built by Giovanni Anguissola, its grounds enclosing the spring that rises and falls on a rhythm Pliny the Younger recorded and that later drew Leonardo to study it.
How to get to Torno
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Monza is roughly 56 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through October is Torno's open season. Spring brings the Pliniana gardens into bloom and the rhythmic spring back to its summer pattern. May and June are the cleanest months for the lake light and the walk up to San Giovanni Battista.
Limone sul Garda
Why visit Limone sul Garda
Limone sul Garda sits on the western shore of Lake Garda at the foot of vertical limestone cliffs, the northernmost commercial lemon-growing town in the world at almost 46 degrees north. The Latin limes, meaning border, gave the place its name; the Bettoni counts gave it its industry.
From the seventeenth century, limonaie, stone-pillared greenhouses heated and covered through winter, allowed lemons to be exported to Austria, Germany, Poland and Russia. The road to Riva del Garda, the Gardesana Occidentale, was carved into the cliff and finished in 1932; until then the town reached the outside world by boat or mule track.
In 1974 a Milanese pharmacologist traced a mutant apolipoprotein, ApoA-1 Milano, to a single eighteenth-century resident, Giovanni Pomarelli. Roughly forty of his descendants in town carry the variant, which suppresses cardiovascular disease and helps a handful of residents past one hundred.
Senso Lake Garda Alfio Ghezzi have been named by a guide.
What to see in Limone sul Garda
- Limonaia del Castèl. Restored seventeenth-century lemon greenhouse on stone pillars above the lake, demonstrating the heated wooden cover that protected the trees through winter.
- Chiesa di San Benedetto. Eighteenth-century parish church on the lake front, with a single nave and Baroque altars rebuilt over an older medieval foundation.
- Centro storico. Tight grid of stone alleys between the old harbour and the cliff, with narrow porticoes that survive from the pre-road fishing and citrus village.
How to get to Limone sul Garda
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Trento is roughly 57 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the months that suit Limone. The lake holds spring temperatures, the lemons flower, the cliff above the town keeps morning shade until noon. July and August fill the lakefront and the cycle path, with peak crowds on weekends drawn from Verona, Milano and German-speaking Europe.
Gardone Riviera
Why visit Gardone Riviera
Gardone Riviera sits at 71 meters on the western shore of Lake Garda, in the province of Brescia. The lake here runs deep against the wall of Monte Pizzocolo, and the climate stays mild enough that lemons, olives and bamboo grow within walking distance of each other.
The town divides between the lakefront and the hill above it. Along the water, Gardone Sotto holds the promenade and harbour; above the centro storico, the ground rises toward the estate grounds and, further up, toward the garden that has drawn on the same mild hillside climate since the start of the twentieth century.
The boathouse on the estate holds a torpedo boat from a 1918 wartime raid, alongside the villa called the Prioria, an amphitheatre and a circular mausoleum. The garden above town spent six decades being arranged, one man working a single hillside into bamboo groves, alpine ravines, Japanese ponds and waterfalls.
The lakefront promenade carries the Bandiera Blu. What holds the town together is that division of altitude: a working lakefront below, and above it two hillside projects, one architectural and one botanical, each built slowly and by a single hand over decades on the same slope.
Il Fagiano, Osteria Antico Brolo, Villa Fiordaliso and 2 more have been named by a guide.
What to see in Gardone Riviera
- Vittoriale degli Italiani. Nine-hectare hillside estate occupied by Gabriele D'Annunzio from 1922 to 1938, with villa, amphitheatre, mausoleum and the cruiser Puglia.
- Nave Puglia. Protected cruiser of the Regia Marina set into the slope above the lake, gifted to D'Annunzio in 1923 and assembled on land at the Vittoriale.
- Giardino Botanico Hruska (Heller Garden). Botanical garden begun around 1901 by Arturo Hruska, with bamboo, Japanese ponds, alpine ravines and waterfalls on a single hillside.
How to get to Gardone Riviera
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Brescia is roughly 53 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the months western Garda works best. The Vittoriale grounds are walkable, the Heller Garden is in full bloom, and the ferry between Salò and Riva del Garda runs regular service. July and August fill the lakefront with day-trippers and the Vittoriale amphitheatre hosts its summer opera season; afternoons get warm but the lake breeze holds steady.
Bellagio
Why visit Bellagio
Bellagio sits on the promontory that divides Lake Como into its three arms, the Como branch to the west and the Lecco branch to the east, with the upper lake running north. Paleolithic settlement traces date back 30,000 years, and an Iron Age castellum stood on the high point around 600 BC.
From the late 13th century the Visconti incorporated Bellagio into the Duchy of Milan. Villa Serbelloni was built in the 15th century on the site of an old razed castle and rebuilt several times; in 1788 Alessandro Serbelloni filled it with 17th- and 18th-century art, and in 1959 the Rockefeller Foundation took ownership, turning the villa into an international conference center.
Villa Melzi, built on the western shore by Francesco Melzi d'Eril (Vice President of Napoleon's Cisalpine Republic), made the village a fashionable summer station for Milanese nobility in the early 1800s.
Mistral, Alle Darsene di Loppia, La Punta have been named by a guide.
What to see in Bellagio
- Villa Serbelloni. Fifteenth-century villa on the high promontory, owned by the Rockefeller Foundation since 1959, with gardens open by guided tour only.
- Villa Melzi. Early 19th-century neoclassical villa built by Francesco Melzi d'Eril on the western shore at Loppia, with public botanical gardens along the lake.
- Punta Spartivento. Northern tip of the promontory where the lake splits in three, with a park, marina, and panoramic view up the Bellagio branch.
How to get to Bellagio
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Monza is roughly 55 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through October is the season. April and May bring camellias and rhododendrons at Villa Melzi, the lake is mild but not warm, and the ferries run a partial timetable. June through August fills the village with day-trippers, the Salita Serbelloni packs by ten in the morning, and the lakeside trattorie reserve weeks ahead.
Tremezzina
Why visit Tremezzina
Tremezzina was created on 25 May 2014 from the merger of Lenno, Mezzegra, Ossuccio and Tremezzo, four villages along the central western shore of Lake Como facing Bellagio. The new comune holds Villa Carlotta, built in the late 1600s for the Marquis Giorgio Clerici and later named for Princess Carlotta who received it in 1850, with seventeen acres of gardens and one of the great rhododendron collections in Italy.
Isola Comacina, the lake's only island, was the wealthiest place on the lake before Como's destruction of it in 1169; nothing has been built there since, and it is now an archaeological site. The Sacro Monte di Ossuccio is one of nine Lombard and Piedmontese Sacri Monti inscribed by UNESCO in 2003: fourteen Baroque chapels built between 1635 and 1710, climbing the prealpine slope two hundred meters above the lake to a sanctuary of 1532.
Mussolini was captured in Dongo north of here and shot in Giulino di Mezzegra on 28 April 1945; the black cross by the road still marks the spot.
La Terrazza Gualtiero Marchesi del Grand Hotel Tremezzo have been named by a guide.
What to see in Tremezzina
- Villa Carlotta. Late seventeenth-century villa built for the Marquis Giorgio Clerici, with seventeen acres of gardens, more than 150 rhododendron and azalea species, and a sculpture collection.
- Isola Comacina. Lake Como's only island, the wealthiest medieval settlement on the lake until its destruction by Como in 1169, now an archaeological site.
- Sacro Monte di Ossuccio. UNESCO site of fourteen Baroque chapels built 1635-1710, climbing two hundred meters above the lake to the Beata Vergine del Soccorso sanctuary of 1532.
How to get to Tremezzina
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Monza is roughly 83 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through October is the working season on the central lake. April, May and September into October are the strongest: the rhododendrons and azaleas of Villa Carlotta peak in late April, the lake holds afternoon warmth without humidity, the Greenway is open and dry. July and August are full: ferries between Bellagio and Tremezzo run at capacity, parking near Villa Carlotta is gone by ten, and the Sacro Monte climb sits in the afternoon shade.
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- The best small lake towns you can reach by train in Lombardia