Coast and lakes
10 lake towns not on Como or Garda
Lake comuni outside the Como and Garda basins: Orta, Maggiore's quieter shore, Bolsena, Trasimeno and the alpine lakes. 10 towns shown, smallest first.
Table no. 32 · Ranked by residents · 10 towns
Italy has more lakes than the two whose names precede every villa listing. Orta, the western shore of Maggiore, Bolsena, the small alpine basins: each carries towns that Como's prices and Garda's coach parks never reach.
The list excludes the Como and Garda basins entirely. Smallest first, because on the quiet lakes small is what you came for.
- 1.Belgirate473 residentsVerbano-Cusio-Ossola · PiedmontA small Lake Maggiore village at 199 meters whose Chiesa Vecchia di Santa Maria has held its 11th-century Romanesque bell tower for nine hundred years.
- 2.Bondone641 residentsTrento · Trentino-Alto Adige/SüdtirolA two-village commune above Lake Idro at the Lombard border, with a Lodron castle on the cliff between them.
- 3.Cannero Riviera909 residentsVerbano-Cusio-Ossola · PiedmontA commune of 900 on the western shore, fronted by three rocky islets whose Borromeo ruins are the town's signature view.
- 4.Orta San Giulio1,047 residentsNovara · PiedmontA promontory facing an islet basilica, with a UNESCO complex of Francis-of-Assisi chapels on the hill above.
- 5.Molveno1,108 residentsTrento · Trentino-Alto Adige/SüdtirolThe village at the north end of a deep blue alpine lake, with a pale limestone range rising straight out of the water.
- 6.Capodimonte1,667 residentsViterbo · LazioThe lakefront Farnese stronghold on a peninsula jutting into Europe's largest volcanic crater lake, with an extra-virgin olive oil tradition recognized by Città dell'Olio.
- 7.Nemi1,877 residentsRoma · LazioThe smallest comune in the Castelli Romani, perched at 521 meters above a volcanic crater lake the Romans called the mirror of Diana.
- 8.Mergozzo2,148 residentsVerbano-Cusio-Ossola · PiedmontA village on the western shore of a small lake cut off from its larger neighbor by river sediment, with a centuries-old elm on its lakefront piazza.
- 9.Ghiffa2,257 residentsVerbano-Cusio-Ossola · PiedmontA Lake Maggiore lakeside village facing the Lombard shore, with a UNESCO sanctuary on the slope above it and a century of hat-making behind it.
- 10.Bolsena3,708 residentsViterbo · LazioA medieval town at 350 meters on the eastern shore of Europe's largest volcanic lake, where a Bohemian priest reported a Eucharistic miracle in 1263.
FIVE OF THE TOP TEN ARE IN PIEDMONT
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