A midweek in Como

So after all the previous trips that you guys might have seen on my instagram and blogposts, I also went to the Como lake area, to end in Crans Montana (Switzerland) again. I already shared what to do in Crans, so I'm not going to share that here again.

We started driving after work around 1 p.m. , to Switzerland. We stayed at a hotel around Luzern (Lucerne) and arrived there at night. Because we were already in the area, the next day I wanted to visit the city. It was actually surprisingly cute! The city centre is not that large but enough for a couple of hours. It's surrounded by the lake and the mountains. You can choose to explore the city in the morning and go to musea in the afternoon... you can also choose to take a gondola to go up in the mountains.

At the city centre you can find this famous bridge. It's built in the 1400's, cool right! In the centre you also have a gorgeous Baroque church, which is actually the first baroque church in Switzerland. Around the centre there are a couple of lovely squares and painted houses to see. All very lovely!

Also what I loved it the fact that the water of the river you see here is cristal clear and the power of it is very strong. It's quite relaxing to wach the water pass by.

After visiting Lucerne city, we drove up to the mountains, to go to Italy. We took the Gotthard pass. We didn't take the tunnel because we wanted to see the mountains. It was a very lovely drive, not much for my stomach though because I get carsick easily... So we stopped on the pass and walked around a bit.

The pass is 2.106 m high, starting from Uri, Switzerland to go to Ticino in Switzerland.

After driving to Ticino, you cross the Maggioro lake, to go to the rest of the trip.

We booked a hotel in Italy at the Lugano lake, to go to Como as trips. It was a cute, lovely hotel with pool. https://www.booking.com/hotel/it/caroline.nl.html

The Como lake is probably prettier and more touristic than the Lugano lake, but also way more expensive. When we arrived at the hotel; we checked in and took a dip in the pool. At night we drove to Como city to have dinner. Como is a historical city where you can wander around for a day. We already did that 2 years ago so we only had dinner at Como. A must see there to me is the cathedral!

On the first actual day in Italy, we went to Menaggio and Bellagio. At Menaggio there’s a villa to visit (Villa Carlotta) but with the Covid situation you can’t visit the entire villa; only the ground floor and the garden. We didn’t want to pay for that so we skipped that and went straight to Bellagio by boat. The boats there are about every 30 minutes and cost about 9 euros back and forth.Arriving at Bellagio, we wandered around through the lovely streets and shops. There’s an old church to visit as well, which is perfect for nerds like me!

Bellagio is located on the centre of the lake, at the edge of the town, you can see both arms of the lake. On the right side of the town when you step out of the boat, there’s a villa with a garden to visit. The villa is called Villa Melzi. The villa itself it private but you can visit the gardens of it. The garden is large and lovely. You have gorgeous lakeviews all around.

After Bellagio we went to Menaggio. Menaggio is less interesting than Bellagio, to me. There's less to see there. There's a lovely church and the townsquare but that's about it. You can go there to rent a boat, if you want.

At the third day of our trip we went to The Lago Maggiore, because it was already on our way back to Switzerland. After Italy, as said before, we went to Crans Montana again.

At the lake there's 3 famous island called the Borromean- islands. We visited them all a couple of times before, but this time we only visited 2 of them, the most visited ones.

Isola Pescatore is the island with a couple of houses and streets. It's cute but not large. You'll need about an hour, an hour and a half to visit it. Isola Bella is the island with a villa on. You can visit the villa for 17 euros. Inside the villa there's a couple of gorgeous rooms that you can visit. Outside the villa, you have the famous gardens.

After the visits, we went to Switzerland by car, with the Simplon pass. Another very high pass in Switzerland. Beware, if you step out of your car on the pass, it can be very cold. The pass is at 2005m high, while the lake is at 193 m....

So the most things I did there at these lakes, was visiting the villas and taking boats... two things I love doing while traveling!

X Steph