Lake Como Hiking

These are ISTAT figures at 31 December 2021: the altitude of each town's built-up centre, and the full range of its comune territory. They explain why a walk that starts at a pier is never flat for long, and why the lakeside route through the seven villages, which stays between 191 and 276 metres, is the outlier rather than the norm.

What that does to a plan

Three consequences, all of them practical. A walk of two hours here is not a walk of two hours on flat ground; the Vezio loop covers about 160 metres of climbing in about 30 minutes, which is a steady staircase pace rather than a stroll. Shade is unreliable, because the terraced olive and chestnut slopes open out on the south-facing sections. And the climate is not a Mediterranean one: the lake averages 1,718 mm of rain a year over about 145 rainy days, and the wettest months are the summer ones, with August at 198.7 mm.

The wind is a real factor above the water rather than a picturesque detail. The Enciclopedia Italiana entry on the lake, from 1931, names the daytime valley breeze the breva, the night breeze blowing the other way the tivano, and the variable winds that produce the lake's abrupt changes the montivi. No agency quantifies any of them; ARPA Lombardia runs anemometers in the region and publishes no Lake Como wind study. What that means on a ridge is that the squall arrives before the forecast does.

The route everyone asks about, and what it does not publish

The eastern shore, from Lecco north through Mandello, Lierna, Varenna, Bellano and up towards Colico, carries the walk everyone asks about. The Sentiero del Viandante is described by Varenna's own tourism portal, published by the comune's tourism department and part of the Regione Lombardia Infopoint network, as an itinerary dating back to the Roman period that skirts the eastern branch of the lake. That is the whole of what an official source says about it. No stage list, no kilometre figure, no ascent, no walking time, no difficulty grade. The site that looks like the route's own presents a certificate that does not match its host, so it cannot even be read.

There is one piece of hard evidence that the route is an organised product rather than a line on a map, and it is a discount. Villa Monastero in Varenna gives 50 per cent off its regular entry to anyone showing a Viandante via Lago ticket at the door. That is a rail-and-trail combination, and it tells you the practical shape of a Viandante day: take the train up the eastern shore, walk one section back down, and use the villa as the reward at the end. The train is the right tool here, because Trenord carries bicycles free within Lombardy and Milano Centrale to Varenna-Esino-Perledo is 72 kilometres at $8.97 (€7.70) in about 64 minutes.

The short walk that does have numbers

The short walk on this shore is the one with numbers. The Anello del Castello di Vezio climbs from Varenna to Vezio di Perledo on an ancient connecting route, about 30 minutes and about 160 metres of ascent by Varenna Turismo's own reckoning. At the top, Castello di Vezio charges $8.16 (€7.00) adult and $4.66 (€4.00) reduced, opens daily from 1 March to 1 December, and stays open and lit until 22:30 on fair-weather Friday and Saturday evenings in June, July and August. From December to February it opens only on fair-weather weekends and holidays, and in November it closes if it rains. One correction worth making: the falconry display that still headlines most write-ups of this castle was permanently discontinued after the vandalism of October 2022, and the castle says so on its own page.

The other two Varenna routes, the Greenway dei Patriarchi and the walk to the source of the Fiumelatte, are named by the portal and described by category and by nothing else. Fiumelatte is a seasonal spring; the portal does not publish its season either.

The Roman road and the one documented route

The western shore's walking is organised around the Antica Strada Regina, the Roman road that ran along this side of the lake, which the 11.2-kilometre lakeside route uses in stretches. That route is the one properly documented thing in Lake Como hiking: 11.2 kilometres in the official technical box and 10 kilometres on the same site's trail page, 221 metres of climbing against 257 of descent, a high point of 276 metres and a low of 191, no technical difficulty, and three and a half hours quoted on its own useful information page. It links Colonno, Sala Comacina, Ossuccio, Lenno, Mezzegra, Tremezzo and Griante, and it passes the San Rocco chapel above Sala Comacina, the tenth-to-twelfth-century church at Spurano and the Santa Maria Maddalena bell tower.

Villa Carlotta's own page puts Villa del Balbianello at half an hour's walk along it. Because that route has its own page here, this one does not repeat it.

Two current warnings on that trailhead

Two warnings attach to that trailhead and both are current. The route's official site maintains a live page reporting works in progress and active detours; check it rather than assuming a stage is walkable. And the road the trailhead sits on is a construction zone: the Variante alla Tremezzina is being built between Colonno and Griante, with the works handover signed on 22 March 2023 and an official end of works date of 10 April 2028.

A standing ANAS ordinance regulates traffic from 15 March to 15 November every year, a mixed traffic-light management trial has been running between Colonno and Griante since 16 March 2026, and the precedent for what can happen is Colonno being shut from 29 November 2021 to 29 March 2022.

The climb through fourteen chapels at Ossuccio

The climb on this shore is the Sacro Monte di Ossuccio, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2003, with fourteen chapels and around 230 statues along the path up to the sanctuary. Cars are not allowed up to the sanctuary itself and there are two chapel car parks instead, which makes this a walk by design rather than by choice. The sanctuary is explicit about the surface: the route between the chapels has steps, cobbles, paving and unsurfaced sections, slopes and architectural barriers, and it describes disabled access as difficult.

Visitors who cannot walk it may drive up with a disabled badge by prior arrangement with the rector on +39 0344 55211.

Above Menaggio, the record goes blank

Above Menaggio the picture goes blank again. The comune's own list of places of interest names Parco Val Sanagra, a protected local park established by provincial deliberation number 183/27914 of 30 June 2005, the Linea Cadorna fortifications of 1916 and 1917 at the Crocetta hamlet with the little church of San Maurizio, and the Antica Strada Regina. These are genuinely walkable and genuinely worth the morning.

The comune publishes no route, no distance, no ascent and no time for any of them, and neither does the association that runs the town's tourist office. Ask at the Infopoint at Piazza Garibaldi 3, which is open daily 09:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 18:00.

Why Brunate is not a boat stop

The southern end of the lake has the most accessible high walking, because a funicular does the climbing. Brunate sits 689 metres above sea level, some 475 above Como, and has no pier at all, which is the first thing to understand: you do not arrive there by boat under any circumstances. You arrive by the Funicolare Como to Brunate, which opened in 1894, was electrified in 1911 and rebuilt in 1934 and 1935, and has been run since July 2005 by the Consorzio Mobilità Funicolare & Bus with the operating role assigned to ATM, not to the bus company ASF.

The fares and the frequency

The practical numbers are good. The journey takes seven minutes. It runs every day from 06:00 to midnight, every 15 minutes from 06:00 to 07:00, every 12 minutes from 07:00 to 09:00 and every 15 minutes from 09:00 to midnight, with the last departure at midnight. Tickets are not timed. The lower station is at Piazza Alcide De Gasperi 4, and there are request stops at Como Alta and Carescione. A single is $4.31 (€3.70) and a return $8.62 (€7.40) on the operator's sheet in force since 1 September 2026; two older sheets are still online at 3.60 and 3.30 euro, and the funicular page sets out which is which. A bicycle, pet, pushchair or parcel is 3.60 euro, and a single with a bicycle is 7.30 euro, which makes this the cheapest 475 metres of ascent on the lake.

From the top the ridge walking begins, and ASF operates a bus link between Brunate and the Rifugio CAO for anyone who wants to start further along it. No official source publishes a distance or a time for any of the Brunate ridge paths, so this page does not print one. What is worth saying is the climate note the ERA5 archive itself carries: the figures on this site are computed for a grid cell at 197 metres, effectively lake level, and Brunate, whose built-up centre ISTAT puts at 689 metres, is several degrees colder. In practice that means one more layer than the lakefront needs, on any day of the year.

One pass that covers it

One pass covers the funicular outright. Io Viaggio Ovunque in Lombardia at $21.00 (€18.00) for a day, $35.00 (€30.00) for two, $41.40 (€35.50) for three or $55.30 (€47.50) for a week covers all Lombardy local transport, regional trains in both classes, this funicular and the Argegno to Pigra cable car. It does not cover the lake boats.

Navigazione Lago di Como publishes one timetable per period and changes it four times a year. In 2026 the summer edition ran 1 July to 4 October and the autumn edition 5 October to 1 November, and the winter edition was not yet published when this page was written. Ordinary tickets are valid on the day of issue only, so a plan that overruns loses the ticket, not just the boat.

Fast-service tickets are worse for walkers: they are valid that day only and allow no intermediate stops at all, and they carry no bicycles. Bicycles on the ordinary boat are allowed at the crew's discretion and no bicycle price is printed on the passenger tariff at all.

How to build a walk around it

Three rules that come straight out of that table. Walk outward in the morning and back towards the pier, not the other way round, because the last useful call is earlier than you think and the first is at 07:33 out of Como. Never plan a walk whose only return is a landing stage with two calls a day. And if you are walking on the eastern shore, use the train rather than the boat: Trenord runs roughly hourly to Varenna-Esino-Perledo, first at 06:20 from Milan and last back at 21:35, which is a far more forgiving window than any boat board on the lake.

The bus is the third option and the numbers matter, because they are widely printed wrong. The lake lines are C110, running Como to Argegno, Menaggio and Colico along the western shore, and C130, running Como to Nesso and Bellagio. ASF renumbered to three digits and a two-digit line number matches nothing on the operator's site, which is why one official page still calls the Colonno bus C10 while another calls the same service C110. Como to Colonno is about 45 minutes. Note also that there is no lakeside bus to Varenna at all: ASF stops at the provincial boundary, and on the Lecco side the lakeside line stops short at Olcio. Getting around has the whole network.

Faced with a lake whose authorities publish almost no route data, there are three honest responses and we would use all of them.

Walk the route that does publish its numbers first. The Colonno to Griante lakeside route is graded as having no technical difficulty, runs between 191 and 276 metres, and gives a full day on foot with piers, bus stops and car parks along its whole length. It is the only walk on this lake you can plan properly from a desk, and it is the sensible first day for anyone testing how their legs cope with the terrain.

Use the tourist offices, because on this lake they hold what the websites do not. The Infopoint at Bellagio in Piazza della Chiesa 14 opens Monday to Saturday 09:00 to 12:30 and 13:00 to 18:00, and Sundays and holidays 09:30 to 12:30 and 13:00 to 14:30. Menaggio's Infopoint at Piazza Garibaldi 3 opens daily 09:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 18:00. Lecco's Infopoint sits in the Palazzo delle Paure at Piazza XX Settembre 23, and Lecco is the town to ask about the Grigne. Varenna's Infopoint answers on +39 350 157 3202 and runs daily 09:30 to 17:30 from June to September, with a reduced pattern the rest of the year and no Tuesday opening from March to May or in October.

And take a guide where route-finding is the problem rather than the fitness. A guided walking tour of Como and Brunate removes the two hardest parts of a first day here, which are finding the start of a path and judging how long the descent will take. A guided eBike route is the same trade for people who would rather cover distance than height. Neither is a substitute for the trail data nobody publishes; both are a way around it.