Two Hours on Lake Como
I didn’t come to Lake Como in mid-August expecting solitude.
Nor was I prepared for the noise of the crowd.
By midday, in Varenna and Bellagio the piers were a stretch of ferry lines. So getting between villages felt less like exploring and more like navigating a bottleneck under the humid heat. The lake was as striking as ever, but enjoying it this way meant seeing over the selfie sticks and crowded guardrails.
Noise, confusion, little room to move. That wasn’t in my plans. That’s why I booked a classic wooden boat tour with a captain through a boat owner called Lake Como Experiences.
Rather than moving from stop to stop, packed on noisy taxi boats, I wanted to enjoy the lake peacefully on my own schedule.
I met my captain, Paolo, at the Menaggio dock at 3:00 PM.
Getting aboard required a bit of careful stepping: with lake water levels noticeably low this August, the drop from the pier to the deck was steeper than expected, and Paolo had to hold the boat steady against the pier so I could climb down safely. Good thing I wore sneakers instead of flip-flops, though I still threw a pair in my bag just in case.
Aboard the boat, it was just me and the captain.
As soon as I saw it, I knew it was a beautiful, brand-new Venetian limousine. I couldn’t help admiring the seamless joinery. The mahogany gleamed like a mirror.
Paolo explained its story to me with evident pride. The owners had spent months visiting the boatyard in Venice in person, hand-selecting the timber grains, custom fittings, and upholstery stitch by stitch. It had been handcrafted by one of the few surviving master boatbuilders who still knows how to shape these hulls entirely by hand.
The sliding roof above the Venetian limousine cabin sheltered me from the midday sun. But that wasn’t all. It also allowed me to get fresh air and to enjoy a 360-degree view thanks to the open roof.
It was a private charter, so I was free to decide where to go.
Paolo opened a navigation chart to discuss the route.
He spoke fluent English with a charming Italian accent.
We agreed on cruising south past the historic villas of the central lake toward Lenno.
A chilled bottle of local Prosecco and bottled water were already resting in the ice bucket. When we arrived near Tremezzo, August lived up to its reputation for unpredictable weather. The wind picked up, kicking up a light chop across the water, and a few stray drops of rain began to fall. Inside the protected cabin, however, the ride remained completely dry and comfortable.
Paolo helped make this experience one I’ll always remember. He was a valuable presence. He shared genuine local insight. Pointing out Villa Carlotta, he joked about the historical rivalries among aristocratic families trying to out-build each other’s botanical gardens. When I asked why he always advised spending the evening in Varenna instead of Bellagio, his answer was purely practical: “In Bellagio, the steep alleys lose the sun early and stay packed with tour buses. Varenna keeps the golden evening light, and by six o’clock, the day-trippers have already caught the train back to Milan.”
The highlight was approaching Villa del Balbianello from the water. Paolo cut the engine and let the boat drift quietly about thirty meters off the wooded promontory for nearly fifteen minutes. I was able to sip a glass of Prosecco with nothing but the sound of water lapping against the mahogany hull. I could admire the gardens of the villas and the famous arched loggia without anyone blocking the view.
We pulled back into the dock just past 5:00 PM.
If your goal is to visit as many towns as possible on a strict budget, public transport is the logical choice. But if you want to live Lake Como to the fullest, this experience is the right one.
The total autonomy over your itinerary, the insight of a local captain like Paolo, and the privilege of experiencing the lake from a handcrafted vintage boat built specifically for these waters were worth every euro.
