I have eaten badly on Lake Como only when I have ordered the wrong things, and by wrong I mean the food that belongs to some other coast. The temptation is real. You arrive from a summer that has taught…
Archives for July 2026
Where to Stay on Lake Como (by Town and by Budget)
Where you sleep on Como shapes the trip, and I have come to think the choice really comes down to two things: base town and budget. The lake is a slim inverted Y of water pressed between mountains, and the…
The Best Photo Spots on Lake Como
Como is almost unfairly photogenic, and after enough visits I have stopped trying to fight it. You cannot really take a bad picture here. What you can do, though, is take the same picture as everyone else, in the same…
The Villas and Gardens of Lake Como
If the ferries are the heart of a Como trip, the villas are its soul. The lake has been a retreat for the wealthy since Roman times, and the great houses they built, wrapped in gardens that tumble to the…
The Best Things to Do on Lake Como
Lake Como rewards a slow hand. It is a place that people rush, ticking off a villa and a gelato before the afternoon boat, and I understand the temptation, because the lake is generous and the days are short when…
Getting Around Lake Como by Boat (and the Ferries Explained)
The first thing I tell anyone planning a few days on Lake Como is to stop thinking about roads and start thinking about water. The lake is shaped like an upside down Y, and its towns face each other across…
How to Get to Lake Como (and Which Station to Use)
The first thing worth saying about Lake Como is that getting there is easier than most people fear, and harder to overthink than the guidebooks suggest. Nearly every journey begins in Milan, and from Milan the train is almost always…
Lake Como – How You Leave a Place You Love
The last morning of anywhere has a particular light to it, and Como saved its best for me. I woke before the house did and did not get up. I lay across the bed with the shutters half open and…
Lake Como – His Two Great Loves
Some mornings the lake gives you back your whole childhood before you have even finished your coffee. I woke early at the villa, before the light had properly settled, and went out onto the terrace in a swimsuit and one…
Lake Como – The Sound of a Riva
There is a particular sound that means summer to me, and it is not birdsong or church bells but the low, patient burble of a wooden Riva easing out of its boathouse while the water is still the colour of…
Cannes 2026: The Films I Keep Thinking About
The last night of Cannes has a quiet that the rest of the fortnight never has. By the time the awards are read inside the Grand Théâtre Lumière, the crowds along the Croisette have thinned, the tenders have stopped crossing…
Cannes Film Festival Parties and Nightlife
The bass reaches you before the boat does. It travels over the water, low and patient, from somewhere out past the buoys where the yachts sit at anchor with their decks lit gold. May, in Cannes, and the town has…
