Current Time
Currency
see + do
Italian Lakes see + do
The Italian Lakes all offer similar distractions—lakeside villas and gardens, gorgeous landscapes, and the tranquil life of small towns—but on different scales. Lake Como is the largest and most visited of the lakes. The town of Como on the lake's southwestern tip is the unofficial capital of the district and generally the first place you hit coming north from Milan or Malpensa airport. Visitors flock to Lake Maggiore mainly to wander the villas, gardens, and fishing villages of the Isole Borromee, a trio of islands just offshore from Stresa. Lake Garda marks the eastern edge of the district and offers Roman ruins on its southern end and some of Europe's best windsurfing around Riva del Garda at the north end. Smaller Lake Iseo and Lake Orta have fewer visitable villas but also far smaller crowds.
Two thousand years of Como history are depicted on the delightfully crowded facade of this 14th-century cathedral. You'll see sculptures of the usual saints and...more
Everyone knows that Italy makes some of the best high-design housewares in the world, but few people realize that the top names are based in this unassuming...more
These first-century B.C. ruins in Sirmione are what's left of an ancient Roman private estate. The well-preserved complex, romantically overgrown with groves of...more
The life of Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italy's favorite poet-adventurer, was as flamboyant as the kitschy Art Nouveau villa where he spent his final days. During...more
The "capital" of Lake Orta is little more than the medieval village of Orta San Giulio. The town's cobblestone streets and main square are charming, but the...more
The Borromeo clan has controlled much of the Maggiore region since Renaissance times and still owns most of the land on this trio of islands off the shore of...more
Garda's biggest selling point is its balmy climate: The lake acts as a gigantic solar panel; a ring of mountains stores the heat while winds help keep...more
Despite its stately bearing, grand hotels, formal gardens, and fringe of mountains, Maggiore is not highly rated by the lake cognoscenti. To unlock the...more
RSS Feeds