Como trip planner

A vacation guide to the city of Como on Lake Como, Italy

Como is a miniscule city of Romanesque carvings, sumptuous silks, hillside hikes, famous scientists (Pliny, Volta), and waterfront promenades anchoring the southwest corner of Lake Como.

The town center retains a spectacular cathedral, squares lined by Renaissance half-timbered houses, and the church of San Fedele with early medieval frescoes and carvings (tel. +39-031-267-295; closed noon–3:30).

Silk in Como

(Photo courtesy of the Museo della Seta, Como) Como has been Italy's silk capital since 1510. While they now import the spun thread from China, the fabrics Como's seta (silk) artisans weave is still the most sought-after by Milan's top designers.

There are shops and warehouse stores all around town hawking silk wares. In the city outskirts there is even a Museum of Silk at Via Castelnuovo 9 (tel. +39-031-303-180; www.museosetacomo.com), open Tuesday to Friday 9am to noon and 3 to 6pm. (Adm)

The Como waterfront - War heros and the invention of the battery

Tempio Voltiano. (Photo courtesy of APT Como.)Just off the lakeside Piazza Cavour, Como has the expected sun-drenched waterfront promenade, but it's an unexpectedly informative one.

Beyond a 1983 memorial to European Resistance fighters of World War II inscribed with some moving quotes from people who sacrificed their lives, a small round neoclassical temple sits on spit in the harbor.

This is the Tempio Voltiano, and it houses a modest museum dedicated to hometown physicist Alessandro Volta, who invented the battery in 1800, whereupon Napoléon made him a count and the scientific community adopted his name for electrical units.

The Tempio Voltiano at Viale Marconi (tel. +39-031-574-705; museicivici.comune.como.it). It's open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to noon and 3 to 6pm (2pm–4pm Oct–Mar).

The Como cathedral ★

On the main square, next to the black-and-white-striped Broletto (medieval town hoall) rises the Cattedrale S. Maria Assunta, Cuomo's Duomo.

The Duomo was begun in 1396, but not capped with its Juvara-designed dome until 1740.

The cathedral façade is a wonderful panoply of Gothic carvings sort of stuck helter-skelter, running up the pilasters and ringing the doorways with no order whatsoever in a gleeful lack of theme, symmetry, or ecclesiastical theory.

The facade of the Como Duomo. (Photo by Sailko) Interestingly, the Plinys—uncle and nephew, ancient Roman hometown heroes, and most excellent pagans both—have a place of honor, flanking the main door.

The church interior preserves some nice altarpieces and nine 16th-century tapestries designed by Alessandro Allori, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, and Louis Karcher and produced in Flemish, Florentine, and Ferrarese workshops.

The giant gilt altarpiece of 1509-14 tells the life story of the local patron and protector Sant'Abbondio, but even better is the church dedicated to him outside town.

The Duomo is at Via Maestri Comacinni 4 (tel. +39-031-300-610; www.diocesidicomo.it).

The Basilica di Sant'Abbondio ★★

Basilica of Sant Abbondio, Como. Standing forlorn in Como's industrial suburbs, the Basilica di Sant'Abbondio is a solid Romanesque church raised by Benedictines between 1050 and 1085 on the edge of town, near the train tracks (or rather, where the train tracks are now, as the medieval Benedictines didn't have railroads).

The church retains the pair of belltowers and extended choir that architecturally link it the Westkerk style of medieval Germany (though it's the work of local masons).

Frescoes in the apse of the Basilica di San'Abbondio, Como. (Photo by Sailko) The apse was gorgeously frescoed in the 14th century with a comic book of Biblical scenes that, thanks to a restoration, are as vividly colored as day they were painted.

The rather wide altar houses a trio of silver-faced bishops resting in peace side-by-side in their colored robes and clutching mighty shepherd's staffs.

The Basilica di Sant'Abbondio is on Via Sant'Abbondio at Via Regina Teodolinda (Via Sant'Abbondonio is the continuation of Via A. Gramsci across Viale Roosevelt (tel. +39- 631-338-8111; www.santabbondio.eu). It is open daily 8am to 6pm (to 4:30pm in winter).

The Burnate Funicular - Hiking in the Apine plains above town

On the northeast end of town, by the lakeside, the Brunate Funicular cog railway leads from a landing stage a short boat ride from Como's harbor up to a hillside village-with-a-view.

Not only are the vistas over Como and the lake spectacular, but there are also plenty of trailheads up here for walks in the hills (the tourist office has maps).

The hillside has been a chichi suburb since the 19th century, and it's littered with 100-year-old villas and pricey modern homes.

Como's Brunate Funicular is at Lungo Lario Trieste (tel. +39-031-303-608, www.funicolarecomo.it) on the northeast end of town. It runs every 15 or 20 minutes from 6am to 10:30pm and the ride up the mountain takes only 7 minutes.

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