Lake towns
Lake towns in Lombardy
25 towns
Towns on the northern lakes and the quieter volcanic ones further south. Water without the coast road.
Monte Isola
Province: Brescia · 600 m
The largest lake island in southern and central Europe, 4.5 square kilometers in Lake Iseo, with no cars and eleven fishing villages on its shore.
Tremosine sul Garda
Province: Brescia · 414 m
A cliff-top commune of 18 frazioni, spread across a limestone plateau above the western shore of its lake.
Porto Ceresio
Province: Varese · 271 m
The Italian port on the southern shore where the Swiss border runs through the water below Monte San Giorgio.
Bellagio
Province: Como · 229 m
On the promontory where Lake Como splits into three arms, with Villa Serbelloni on the high ground and Villa Melzi on the western shore.
Torno
Province: Como · 225 m
A medieval village on the eastern shore of Lake Como, built around a spring whose rhythm has drawn attention for centuries.
Dervio
Province: Lecco · 220 m
A peninsula on upper Lake Como's eastern shore at the Varrone delta, with a Romanesque bell tower and one of the lake's best sailing winds.
Varenna
Province: Lecco · 220 m
A fishing village founded in 769 on the Lecco arm of Lake Como, with a steep grid of streets falling into the water.
Tremezzina
Province: Como · 209 m
The 2014 merger of four Lake Como villages that holds Villa Carlotta, Isola Comacina and the UNESCO Sacro Monte di Ossuccio.
Angera
Province: Varese · 205 m
A Lake Maggiore town on the southern shore, anchored by a fortified castle on a limestone spur above the water, with a museum trail running from prehistory to the medieval period along the waterfront.
Menaggio
Province: Como · 203 m
On the western shore of Lake Como at the mouth of the Senagra, the lake's old Roman crossing point between Como, Bellagio and the Valtellina.
Bellano
Province: Lecco · 202 m
An eastern shore town where the Pioverna cut a gorge through fifteen million years of rock before reaching the water.
Cernobbio
Province: Como · 201 m
The town where Villa d'Este has been a luxury hotel since 1873.
Laveno-Mombello
Province: Varese · 200 m
The eastern Lake Maggiore port town that produced Lombardia's industrial ceramics for a century, under the cliff that hangs over it.
Lovere
Province: Bergamo · 200 m
An amphitheater town at the north end of a Lombard lake, in Borghi più belli since 2003, holding Canova plasters inside the Accademia Tadini.
Iseo
Province: Brescia · 198 m
The main town on the southeast shore of Lake Iseo, gateway to the Franciacorta sparkling wine country.
Predore
Province: Bergamo · 198 m
A small village on the Bergamo shore, sitting on a Roman villa with intact thermal baths underneath.
Sesto Calende
Province: Varese · 198 m
The town at the southern tip of the lake where the Ticino starts toward the Po, the type site of the pre-Roman Golasecca culture.
Sarnico
Province: Bergamo · 197 m
A medieval lake town at the southern tip of Lago d'Iseo, where the Oglio leaves the lake and Liberty villas line the shore.
Lonato del Garda
Province: Brescia · 188 m
A hilltop commune on the southwestern Garda morainic ridge, with a Visconti castle and a private library of 52,000 volumes.
Manerba del Garda
Province: Brescia · 132 m
A Valtenesi commune anchored by a limestone cliff that held a Roman temple to Minerva and a medieval fortress.
Sirmione
Province: Brescia · 91 m
A 4-kilometer peninsula reaching into the southern Garda, its tip closed by a fortified port and a Roman villa.
Toscolano-Maderno
Province: Brescia · 72 m
Twin lakeside villages on the western shore of Garda, paper mill suppliers to the Republic of Venice from the 14th century onward.
Gardone Riviera
Province: Brescia · 71 m
A western Garda lakeshore town whose hillside holds an estate turned into a monument to one man's self-image.
Limone sul Garda
Province: Brescia · 65 m
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.
Salò
Province: Brescia · 65 m
On the deepest gulf of the lake, with the longest waterfront promenade and the cathedral of the Riviera di Salò.
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From elsewhere in Italy
Five more towns to discover
Campi Salentina
Province: Lecce
A Salento plain town fifteen kilometers north of Lecce, rebuilt after the Saracen raids of 926 and later raised to a marquisate.
Loreto Aprutino
Province: Pescara
A hilltop town at 290 meters in the Aprutino olive country, with a fourteenth-century Judgment fresco and a Castelli majolica collection.
Ascea
Province: Salerno
Two villages, a hilltown at 230 meters and a Cilento marina, with Parmenides and Zeno's Eleatic school in the ruins of Greek Velia below.
Vico del Gargano
Province: Foggia
A Gargano hill town at 445 meters where a Norman castle, a kiss alley, and DOP citrus terraces step down toward the Adriatic.
Mantova
Province: Mantova
A Gonzaga capital at 19 meters, encircled on three sides by lakes the Mincio formed in the twelfth century, UNESCO-listed together with Sabbioneta since 2008.