Isola Comacina is a very small island on Lake Como, that we had heard good things about. The concept of having an island on a lake was intriguing to me, so we decided it was worth a trip to see what it was like.
First of all, it really is a small island. It takes about 30-40 minutes to get around the entire place, and that's at a leisurely pace. Secondly and to our surprise, you actually have to pay to look around - I think it was about 6 euros each or something like that. It seemed that they treated it more like an outdoor (and partially indoor) museum.
We had a nice walk around the different sites and paths, including a chapel built in the 10th century which was quite impressive.
Of course, as with all other places around the lake, the views were no less than spectacular.
If I was to be brutally honest though, I'm not entirely convinced that Isola Comacina is worth the visit. For two main reasons: 1) it takes a while to get there and it also costs extra for a ferry that stops there, and 2) the entry fee. It's not that the money itself is a huge amount, but it's just that even though it's an undeniably beautiful place, it lacked atmosphere for me and it's not somewhere you should feel the need to fit into a relatively short trip. However, I don't regret going - just my afterthoughts!
The other thing we had read about was what guide books call the
Greenway Walk, which spans all the way from Colonno to Griante, a 3 hour 30 minutes walk on average. It seemed to be a route that takes you along the lake with wonderful views on a quieter and scenic path, which sounded pretty idyllic. We weren't quite up for the full length, but we did quite well - walking from Lenno to Menaggio, which took us over 2 hours!
We had a short stop at Lenno first, where we enjoyed some pasta and of course, more gelato - the "honey of the lake" flavour I had was out of this world!
The route of the Greenway Walk got slightly perilous at times - as in, walking on the side of a road with no pavement - but it was definitely a good "hike" without actually having to hike. And it's really quite impossible to get bored or tired when looking out at views like the above.
Plus, it works up your appetite for more pasta and gelato, which is never a bad thing.
