Varenna sits on the eastern shore of Lake Como at the point where the lake narrows before splitting into its two southern branches — a small fishing village of coloured houses built so close to the mountain behind them that the streets between the houses are staircases rather than roads. You arrive by ferry from Bellagio or Menaggio across the water, or by train from Milan along the eastern shore. You do not arrive by car from the western shore — there is no road connecting Varenna to the rest of the lake’s western circuit. That geographical fact explains everything about why Varenna is extraordinary.
While Bellagio accumulated the boutiques and the tourist restaurants and the day-tripper crowds that arrive by hydrofoil from Como every forty minutes, Varenna accumulated almost none of those things. The same ferry network that connects it to Bellagio also insulates it — the crossing takes twelve minutes and most visitors to Bellagio never make it. Varenna remains a working village in a way that the most famous lake towns no longer are. The bars on the waterfront serve the same coffee to the same fishermen at the same tables each morning.
The village
The historical centre of Varenna occupies a narrow strip of land between the mountain and the lake — a medieval settlement of extraordinary density where the houses rise in tiers above the waterfront, connected by staircases and steep passages that make the village effectively car-free by geography rather than policy. The lakeside passeggiata — the Passeggiata degli Innamorati, the Walk of Lovers — runs at water level along most of the shoreline, a narrow path between the lake and the village walls that at certain points is barely wide enough for two people to pass.
The Church of San Giorgio on the main square and the Church of San Giovanni Battista near the waterfront define the two poles of the village — the medieval and the lakefront — and the lanes between them contain the essential character of Varenna: washing lines between buildings, cats on window ledges, the sound of the lake audible from every level.
Villa Monastero
Villa Monastero occupies a narrow 2km strip of land along the southern shore of Varenna — a 17th century manor house built on the foundations of a 12th century Cistercian convent, its extraordinary botanical garden extending along the lakefront in a collection of species from Africa and the Americas that the mild Como microclimate supports with remarkable ease.
The villa has an extraordinary additional dimension — the conference centre hosted by the Province of Lecco has attracted over sixty Nobel Prize winners to its physics courses since the postwar period. Villa Monastero is simultaneously one of the most beautiful lakefront gardens in northern Italy and one of the most significant venues in 20th century Italian scientific history. The garden is open daily from March to November.
Villa Monastero, Viale Giovanni Polvani 4
Garden: daily 1 Mar – 1 Nov
House museum: Jun–Aug daily · Sep–Nov weekends and selected days
Garden only: €5 · Garden and house museum: €8
Villa Cipressi
Directly adjacent to Villa Monastero — Villa Cipressi is now a hotel, but the garden is open to non-guests for a modest fee. Smaller and less formal than Villa Monastero, it rewards the visitor who combines both gardens on the same afternoon walk south from the village centre.
Villa Cipressi, Via IV Novembre 18
Daily Apr–Oct 9am–6:30pm
Vezio Castle
Castello di Vezio sits above Varenna on a rocky outcrop at the village of Vezio — a medieval tower of extraordinary position, reached by a steep path of approximately 20 minutes from the Varenna waterfront. The walk up is the point — the path climbs through terraced olive groves with extraordinary views across the lake expanding as you ascend, Bellagio visible across the water, the Swiss Alps beyond on clear days.
The castle hosts a permanent exhibition on the Lariosaurus — the Triassic aquatic reptile whose fossil remains were found in the Lake Como limestone — and a collection of captive birds of prey with flight exhibitions on certain days. The combination of medieval ruins, extraordinary lake views and Triassic prehistory in a single 20-minute walk from the waterfront is one of the most rewarding short excursions on the eastern shore.
Vezio Castle
Daily Mar–Oct from 10am · closes 5pm or later depending on month
Closed when it rains
Adults €4 · children 6–12 €2 · students and over-65 €3
Arriving in Varenna
By ferry — the correct way
Varenna has two ferry piers at the northern end of the village. The vehicle traghetto — the car ferry — connects to Bellagio, Cadenabbia near Tremezzo and Menaggio on the western shore. Passenger services connect to Lenno, Tremezzo and Como. The twelve-minute crossing from Bellagio is the most beautiful short ferry crossing on the lake — the village visible from the water before docking gives you the complete Varenna silhouette that no approach by road can provide.
Check Gestione Navigazione Laghi (navigazionelaghi.it) for timetables. The last afternoon ferries from Varenna back to Bellagio and the western shore run earlier than most visitors expect — check the return time before leaving the waterfront.
By train — the useful alternative
Varenna-Esino station sits just north of the village at the boundary with Perledo — a 10-minute walk from the waterfront. Express trains from Milano Centrale reach Varenna in approximately one hour. Regional trains from Milan Porta Garibaldi take 90 minutes to two hours but stop at all eastern shore villages including Fiumelatte, Varenna’s southern subdivision.
The last train back to Milan departs at approximately 21:20 — earlier than you might expect for a summer evening on the lake. Check Trenord (trenord.it) for current timetables before planning an evening in Varenna.
By air — the nearest airports
Orio al Serio (Milan Bergamo) is the most convenient for budget airline arrivals — bus to Bergamo station, train to Lecco, change for Varenna, approximately 2 hours total. Milano Centrale is the most practical hub for onward connections — both Malpensa and Linate connect to Milano Centrale by shuttle, from where the express to Varenna takes one hour.
The eastern shore ferry route
Varenna sits at the midpoint of one of the most rewarding single-day ferry itineraries on Lake Como — the eastern shore route from Como town north through Nesso, Varenna and Bellano, returning by train or by the afternoon slow service. Nesso — 20 minutes south of Varenna by ferry — has the extraordinary Civera Bridge and the Orrido gorge. Bellano — 15 minutes north — has the Orrido di Bellano gorge walk, one of the most dramatic short walks on the eastern shore.
The complete Lake Como Ferry Guide covers this route in detail — timetables, village combinations and the exact ferry service types for each connection.
[Download the Lake Como Ferry Guide — €9 →]
What Varenna is for
Varenna is not Bellagio. It does not have Bellagio’s famous waterfront boutiques or Bellagio’s famous restaurant terrace or Bellagio’s extraordinary position at the confluence of the three lake branches. What it has is the extraordinary quality of being overlooked — of being 12 minutes by ferry from the most visited village on the lake and receiving a fraction of its visitors.
The cookery lessons at Ristorante Il Caminetto in the nearby village of Gittana — where chef Moreno teaches small groups in a family restaurant above the lake, drives them up from Varenna, feeds them the results and returns them via Vezio Castle — are the most specific and most genuine Lake Como experience available on the eastern shore. The kind of afternoon that requires a village that has not entirely converted itself to tourism.
Varenna is that village.
Varenna is part of The Wanders Lake Como Beyond the Map guide — the villages, gorges and ferry routes that the standard Lake Como itinerary misses. The Lake Como Ferry Guide covers all connections from Varenna to the eastern and western shore villages.
