Life in Lake Como is beautiful. The surrounding towns — peppered with Romanesque churches, medieval castles and neoclassical monuments — are laid back in the most Italian of ways. A stroll down any cobbled alleyway in Bellagio, Lecco, Como, or Varenna will lead to sweet cafes, artisan shops and darling row houses where little children and their grandmothers peek from windows to greet neighbors and friends passing by.
Here, people are friendly and relaxed — perhaps it’s the mesmerizing sway of the lake that calms them, or the absence of cars that gives them more time to admire their verdant mountains. Whatever it may be, this region of Italy holds something special…and different from the rest.