The next day was our long awaited day trip to Lake Como. Originally when we were doing our planning we threw around the idea of staying overnight. However, hotels are notoriously expensive and there’s an influx of tourists in the summer, making it difficult to line up for ferries. To get the full experience I think you need to splurge on a fancy hotel and pay for private charters to take you island hopping. Sadly that wasn’t the case for us, so we made do with a meagre bus tour lol.

We got to Milano Centrale early that morning and grabbed a few croissants to eat for breakfast. I soon realized I could probably eat a pistachio cream croissant everyday if given the opportunity. There are lots of tour buses leaving from that corner of the station, so after confirming our reservations, we got on and started heading towards Lake Como. 

Our tour guide was quite knowledgeable and we were so impressed cause she could switch between English, Italian, Spanish and French so seamlessly to cater to everyone. Our bus was full despite it being a Wednesday. Our guide entertained us along the way and we made mental notes of other places to visit on our full day in Milan the following day.

As we neared our first stop at Menaggio, our guide pointed out a lot of the popular villas in the area. This obviously included George Clooney’s villa (the driver even slowed down for us to look) and also the villa that was used to film House of Gucci with Lady Gaga. Once we arrived at Menaggio we had just under an hour to walk around and explore the town. Our guide explained the unique climate of the prealps and it was definitely a different kind of beauty than the high mountainous range of the alps.

Afterwards we all loaded onto a private boat which would take us on an hour long cruise of the lake. We had another gorgeous day out and it was so relaxing sitting on the boat taking in all the scenery. The boat took us near the Villa del Balbianello, which was where they filmed Casino Royale. While a lot of villas are privately owned, some are open to the public. I would have loved to stop at a villa to see what it was like from the inside (more on this later).

The boat finally dropped us off at the Bellagio, where we had two hours to grab lunch and explore. We took our guide’s advice and walked over to the tip of the Bellagio to take photos first. Then we backtracked and walked through the town to see all the shops. To save time we grabbed a slice of pizza for 6€ and I ate the first of many gelatos on this trip (papaya and guava flavour).

Once the two hours were up, we loaded onto the boat to get to the other side of the island, then transited by bus back to… Switzerland??? There was so much confusion about this bus tour because we were almost certain we had booked one which allowed for time to go sightseeing at a villa. Instead we headed over to Lugano, Switzerland as our final stop on the tour. 

I think all of us were collectively Switzerland-out by then and I had fully converted all my remaining Swiss Francs to Euros earlier that day. While Lugano was beautiful, it didn’t have the same charm as Bellagio. Since it was quieter we were able to just relax and wait until it was time to head back to Milan again. 

Overall I had no major complaints about our bus tour aside from unnecessary confusion. Lake Como is even more picturesque in person than I imagined and it was the perfect summer day to visit. For dinner that night we went to a local pizza chain called Berberè. I ordered their Ortolana pizza, which had baked zucchini, mashed potatoes in olive oil, provola cheese and pesto. I honestly don’t know how I’ll ever go back to eating mediocre Italian food in Toronto again.