Lakes in Italy

Lakes in Northern Italy

Plenty of people fly to Italy, do Rome, Florence and Venice, and fly home. Plenty of others, many of whom couldn’t care less about Renaissance art, head straight for the lakes. Spend one evening watching the light go pink on the mountains above Lake Como or Lake Garda and you’ll understand why.

The big lakes sit in a row along the foot of the Alps, strung between Turin and Venice. Most of them are close enough to Milan for a day trip, which is exactly why the Milanese pour out to them every weekend. Summer adds a heavy tide of Germans, Swiss, Brits and Americans on top of that. The lakes are not an undiscovered corner of Italy, and in July and August no lake town is quiet.

So pick your season. I’d go in June or September: warm enough to sit by the water, with ferries on their full summer timetables and fewer people on them. April, May and October are lovely too, just cooler. Winter is quiet and moody, and many lakefront hotels and restaurants close from November to March. Whenever you go, book your room early, especially anything with a lake view.

Italy’s Major Lakes at a Glance

• Lago di Garda, or Lake Garda. The largest lake in Italy, with shores in three regions: Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige. The south end is flat and wide, with beaches, campsites and theme parks. The north end is a narrow fjord between mountains, and Riva del Garda and Torbole are windsurfing and sailing towns. It’s also the easiest lake to reach by train: Desenzano and Peschiera are stations on the main Milan to Venice line, and fast trains from Venice get to Peschiera in about 75 minutes. Sirmione, with its moated castle and Roman villa ruins on a thin peninsula, is the postcard stop, and it gets mobbed. Malcesine, under Monte Baldo and its cable car, is my pick for a base on the east shore.
• Lago Maggiore, or Lake Maggiore. Italy’s second-largest lake runs about 64km from Arona in Italy up to Locarno in Switzerland’s Ticino canton, with Piedmont on the west shore and Lombardy on the east. The reason to come is the Borromean Islands off Stresa: Isola Bella with its baroque palace and stacked garden terraces, Isola Madre with its botanical garden, and the fishing village on Isola dei Pescatori. Stresa is on the railway from Milan, so it works without a car. Cannobio, near the Swiss border, is the prettier and calmer place to sleep.
• Lago di Como, or Lake Como. Lake Como is the famous one: an upside-down “Y” of deep water walled in by mountains, entirely within Lombardy, lined with villas and gardens. Bellagio, Varenna and Menaggio face each other across the middle of the lake and are linked by frequent ferries, which makes that stretch the best base. Como town is a quick train ride from Milan. It’s the most crowded lake per square foot, so go early in the day or out of season.
• Lago d’Iseo, or Lake Iseo. Iseo sits between Bergamo and Brescia and gets a fraction of Como’s visitors. The draw is Monte Isola, a big, hilly, mostly car-free island in the middle of the lake, where you walk or cycle between fishing villages. Trains run from Brescia to Iseo and on up the east shore. South of the lake are the vineyards of Franciacorta, Italy’s best-known sparkling wine outside Prosecco country. If you want lake scenery without elbowing anyone, this is the one.
• Lago d’Orta, or Lake Orta. Small, green and quiet, in Piedmont just west of Maggiore. Orta San Giulio is one of the loveliest small towns in northern Italy, with a cobbled lakefront square and boats across to the island of San Giulio and its basilica. Above town, the Sacro Monte di Orta is a hillside of chapels that forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It pairs easily with a stay on Lake Maggiore.
• Lago di Lugano, or Lake Lugano. Mostly Swiss, named for the Swiss city of Lugano, but it dips into Lombardy at both ends. On the Italian side are Porlezza and Valsolda, and the “exclave” of Campione d’Italia, which is completely surrounded by Switzerland. Campione uses Swiss francs as well as euros, though since 2020 it has been part of the EU customs territory. Lugano is an easy day out from Como or Menaggio; bring your passport, since Switzerland is in Schengen but spot checks happen.

Lakes Beyond the North

The Alpine lakes get the attention, but central Italy has lakes of its own, and they make good breaks from a Rome or Tuscany itinerary.

• Lake Trasimeno in Umbria, on the Tuscan border, is Italy’s fourth-largest lake: shallow, reedy and ringed by hill towns like Castiglione del Lago and Passignano. Hannibal crushed a Roman army on its north shore in 217 BC.
• Lake Bolsena, in northern Lazio, fills the crater of an old volcano and is the largest volcanic lake in Europe. It’s close to Orvieto and Civita di Bagnoregio.
• Lake Bracciano, 32km northwest of Rome, is the Romans’ own weekend lake, with a castle in Bracciano town and swimming in clean water. It’s the easiest lake day trip from Rome.

Getting Around the Lakes

On Garda, Maggiore and Como, the public ferries (the battelli) are run by Navigazione Laghi, a government agency. Fares go by distance, fast boats cost more than slow ones, and day passes pay off if you’ll make more than two or three hops. Timetables are seasonal, with the fullest service from spring to early October; check the current ones on navigazionelaghi.it before you plan a day around a boat.

My advice: don’t drive around the lakes in summer. The shore roads are narrow, lined with tunnels and parked cars, and slow. Take the train to the lake, then use the boats. If you do rent a car, it’s most useful for Iseo, Orta and the hills behind the lakes.

Want a lake-view room? Start with the site’s picks of Italian lake hotels with great views, with separate lists for Como, Garda, Maggiore, Iseo, and Orta and Lugano.

original photos, from top to bottom, by: *Vly*, wagman_30