Known for
The Duomo, the Tempio Voltiano and grand villas along the Lake Como
Must-see landmarks
Como Cathedral, Villa Olmo and the Como-Brunate funicular
Best time to visit
April to June and September, before and after the summer crowds
Days needed
One day for the historic centre, plus a half day for a boat trip on the lake
Villa Olmo's neoclassical facade, built between 1782 and 1787 for Marquis Innocenzo Odescalchi to a design by Simone Cantoni, opens onto lakefront gardens that are free to walk. The piano nobile is also free to enter, Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00. The lakeside promenade leads east to the Tempio Voltiano in 16 minutes.
This neoclassical temple on the lakefront promenade holds the museum of Alessandro Volta, the Como-born inventor of the electric battery, its facade set with statues personifying science and faith. It opens Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00. Piazza Cavour is 9 minutes further along the promenade.
The old town opens onto the lake here, Como's social hub of cafes and boat piers, with the wooded hillside of Brunate rising across the water. Basilica di San Fedele, tucked into the lanes of the old town, is 6 minutes south.
This Romanesque basilica, probably built around 1120, centres the small square that was Como's medieval grain market and once served as the city's main church, its bell tower rebuilt in the early 1900s. The nave is free to step into outside services. Como Cathedral is 4 minutes north.
Built from 1396 and finished in 1770, the Gothic-Renaissance Duomo crowns its portal with statues of Pliny the Elder and Younger, Como's classical writers, under a dome added by Filippo Juvarra. The nave is free; a ticket covers the transept, sacristies and balconies. The 1215 Broletto adjoins it. The funicular station is 10 minutes away.
A funicular has climbed to Brunate since 1894, the ride a steep 7 minutes, running daily from 06:00 to 24:00 with departures every 12 to 15 minutes. From the hillside village, paths climb to the octagonal Faro Voltiano, a 29 metre tower raised in 1927 to mark the centenary of Volta's death, with views over the lake and the Alps.
The lakefront gardens are free to walk within their seasonal opening hours, and the villa's ground-floor rooms are also free to step into, Tuesday to Sunday, except when the building closes for private events.
Stepping into the nave costs nothing; booking ahead is only needed for the transept, sacristies and balconies on the guided route.
Como's lakefront square and the promenade running from Villa Olmo in the west to the Fontana di Villa Geno in the east cost nothing to stroll, day or night, with boats, cafes and lake views along the way.
The nave is free to step into outside Mass times, its quiet, irregular apse a contrast to the crowds a few streets over around the Duomo.
The medieval town hall's marble loggia and arcades facing Piazza del Duomo cost nothing to admire from outside; exhibitions held inside carry their own admission.
A quieter alternative to the crowds around the Duomo, this Romanesque church has no ticket booth: step in any time outside Mass to see the frescoes and twin towers for free.
Como's medieval city gate stands in the open air at any hour, free to walk past or through, surrounded by the old town's shops and its weekly market.
This steel sculpture honouring Alessandro Volta stands at the tip of the harbour pier, free to reach on foot at any hour, with no ticket or opening hours to plan around.
Como sits at the foot of the lake that carries its name, a small city that has drawn visitors since Roman times for the same reason it does now: the water, the hills around it and an old town still built at a walkable, human scale. It was the birthplace of Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger, and of Alessandro Volta, whose invention of the battery the city marks everywhere from a neoclassical temple to a steel sculpture on the water.
Como's wealth was built on silk, and the Museo della Seta still traces that history, from silkworm to finished fabric. The lake itself remains the main reason to come, and the walk along the lungolago from Villa Olmo to Villa Geno is the easiest way to take it in, past the Tempio Voltiano and the boat piers of Piazza Cavour.
Regular ferries leave Como's piers for villages further up the water. Bellagio sits where the lake forks, its gardens at Villa Melzi and Villa Serbelloni among the best known on the water. Varenna, across on the eastern shore, keeps Villa Monastero and a quieter pace. Cernobbio, the closest of the three, is known for Villa d'Este, a 16th-century palace turned lakefront hotel.
April to June and September bring milder crowds than midsummer, when the lakefront and the ferries fill up. A single day covers the historic centre on foot; add a half day for Brunate or a boat trip up the lake. Trains run into Como from Milan to the south, making the city an easy day trip as well as a base of its own, and the Como-Brunate funicular is the way up to the hillside village above the rooftops. For travellers visiting Italy on a longer route, the lake pairs naturally with Milan and the rail lines onward to Venice.