Pops’ Italy Travel Guide, Lake Como

Picture yourself sitting on your private veranda of your hotel room with a glass of wine and maybe some salami and cheese to snack on. Your view is the end of a finger of a beautiful lake. On the other side of the lake is an old town and just past that are the Alps.

That is just the view we had last year staying at Lake Como. We were finishing up a three week vacation in Italy of visiting the family, and then seeing Venice and Rome. We drove between each location. Since we were flying out of Milan I wanted a place to relax at the end of the trip. We ended up picking the perfect place.

 

Lake Como is in Northern Italy not far from Milan and at the base of the Alps near the Swiss border. The lake is shaped like a “Y” and is very long. Think of an upside down “Y”. We stayed on what would be the bottom right part of the “Y” in a town called Malgrate. The town we overlooked was called Lecco. The hotel is the Clarion Collection Hotel Griso, Lecco. I just looked up the rates and they start at $98 currently. This is very reasonable considering what you get. Each room has a private veranda with a view of the lake. The rooms are large; ours was like a suite with two sliding glass doors leading to the veranda. There is a restaurant on the top floor which is rated very high. At night you get the view of Lecco all lit up and the lights glimmering off the lake. If you stay at this hotel you must eat at the restaurant. There is a dress code and you will be able to see why. The food is excellent.

 

I would suggest exploring the many towns especially Lecco, that are in the area.

 

We wanted to relax and so on one of the days we rented a boat for three hours on the lake. We packed a lunch including wine and wanted to see the entire lake. We didn’t realize just how big it is. It would have taken us all day to get to George Clooney’s house and back. The day however was very relaxing as we cruised along the coast line looking at the beautiful towns and villas. We stopped the boat and had lunch and then drove it back to the boat rental. All in all it was a very nice day.

 

Being about an hour and a half from the Milan airport we got up early the next day and drove to the airport. It was nice to have those relaxing days at the end of the trip. A perfect ending to our Italy vacation.