Day trip to Varenna & Bellagio

Today I want to write about the trip that I did just yesterday to the Como Lake (yes again: I can’t get enough of this place, it's so beautiful! ), and more precisely to the villages of Varenna and Bellagio. It was not my first time going to the Como Lake, but it was my first time going to these villages specifically, so I was excited to see again a place that I knew, yet discover more of it!

We went there by train, leaving from the train station Milano Centrale at about 12. 30 pm. The trip to get there took us only around 1 hour (and we saw some wonderful landscapes through the windows on our way there), and the round trip cost us about €14. I think that’s really not expensive, and you get to see totally different landscapes than what you can see in the city! To me it was really worth it, and I think that if you’re spending a few days in Milan you should definitely make some time to go to a village around the Como Lake! And if you have no idea on which villages to go to, let me tell you about Varenna and Bellagio, which were really amazing. I hope that after you read this post, you want to go there too!

Yesterday was Monday, and as we didn’t have any classes, we decided to go on a small trip to a place nearby Milan to not spend too much money. We usually prefer to do that in a week day to avoid all the crowd of people of the weekend and enjoy the place as much as possible. And indeed, our first stop was Varenna and there was absolutely no one in the streets, I'm not even exaggerating. Almost all the houses had their windows with the shutters closed, we only saw one shop that was open and there was literally only us in the streets, as you can see in the following picture (I took it in Bellagio but the situation was the same in both villages). The only locals we saw in that village were the ducks in the lake, for real.

At first, we really enjoyed that: we had the village to ourselves, we could take all the pictures we wanted and the quietness was really great. It was all silent, which is something that basically never happens in a city like Milan, and I think that's one of the reasons why I enjoyed this trip so much. It was so relaxing to see nobody, hear nothing and just enjoy the view.

We stayed in Varenna a little bit more than one hour, enjoying the wonderful landscape and the a paz that the lake and mountains were providing. Doing nothing and just taking it all in. The view was really incredible and the fact that there was no one and no sound around us was just amazing. I was really surprised in a good way by the quietness of this place and how good it felt to be here. When you are in a big city every day, it feels really great to have some time off with no noise at all.

After that, we went to take the ferryboat (you can get the tickets from a small ferry station located on the village, just next to the place from which the ferry arrives and leaves, which is really just a booth with one person selling the tickets) to go to the village of Bellagio. It’s a small boat that takes passengers and cars from one village to the other all day long. The round trip cost us a little less than €10, and it’s really the easiest, fastest and prettiest way to travel between the villages! The trip only takes about 15 minutes.

During this ferry trip, the view was truly amazing: we were in the middle of the lake and all we could see around us was water and mountains with a little bit of snow at the top. This is a view that I also really loved, the only thing that could be seen as bad (but wasn't really so important when you have such an amazing view) was that it was much colder on the boat than in the villages.

When we were in Bellagio we started looking for a place to have lunch. At that moment, the fact that there was almost nobody in the villages made it a little hard. We ended up finding a restaurant called “Princess Bellagio”, where we all had pizza for lunch, once again (because what else could you eat in Italy? ). This restaurant is where we found out why the villages were empty: at this time of the year, the shops and restaurants are only open during the weekends, and remain closed during the rest of the week. Winter is probably not the best time for workers in these villages since there are not so many tourists and so that is not so profitable for them, so you have to know that if you go there during this time of year, not much will be open. But if you don’t mind it, it’s really great that there are not so many people, and we still ended up finding some place to have lunch so that was fine by us.

When we came out of the restaurant it was almost time for sunset (we had lunch around 15. 30). We decided to go to the shore of the lake and wait for it. It was one of the most amazing sunset I saw, with the sun disappearing behind the mountains and coloring the sky and the lake. It was truly beautiful.

I only wish the sun would set later so we could have enjoyed the villages a little longer. It was dark at 17. 30, so we took the ferry-boat back to Varenna and then went to the train station to go back to Milan.

This day at the lake was really amazing and relaxing. We saw breathtaking landscapes, enjoyed all the quietness and peacefulness there was in this place. Both villages were truly pleasant, even if I had a little preference for Varenna (maybe you could tell from what I wrote) and liked it a little more than Bellagio.

I had a very good day and if you have the opportunity to go to this area of Italy, you should really take it because it is amazing.

(On this picture above, it is one of my view of the day. The houses looked really pretty and there was nobody to get in the picture. It is still my favorite one from the whole trip, and we saw amazing things).

As I had already been to some other villages around the Como Lake before, I knew more or less what to expect: quiet villages, beautiful landscapes and a nice, relaxing day. I have to say that I was still surprised (in the right way), especially by the village of Varenna, which I kind of fell in love with. This place was just so quiet, empty and relaxing that I felt so great there. It has definitely become my favorite village around the lake, and I think I'll go back whenever I get the chance.

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