Como, Cernobbio and Brunate

The city of Como, on the southwestern tip of Lake Como, was the third stop (after Bergamo and Lecco) that we had planned on our tour of places to live in Italy. By this time, though, we were already so enchanted with Lecco that Como and our last stop, Cernobbio, didn’t stand much of a chance. But we tried to keep our minds open, at least for the first few days.

We traveled from Lecco to Como by train on November 6. We had originally planned to go by bus, but we learned that the city bus had no storage for large luggage, so we’d have had to wrestle our two large bags onto the bus and buy each of them a ticket since they’d be occupying a seat! The train journey was a few minutes longer and required a stopover and a change of trains along the way, but it made managing the luggage much easier.

But first, back to Lecco for a day

Then on our first full day in Como…we went back to Lecco. We had identified two possible apartments in Lecco while we were there, but we had seen only one of them before we left. We couldn’t get an appointment to see the other until what would be our first day in Como. Because we couldn’t change our Airbnb reservation on such short notice, we opted to go to Como as planned, and then return to Lecco for the day, this time by bus because we weren’t burdened with luggage.

The apartment was beautiful, with windows and a terrace offering great views across the River Adda and down south toward Lake Garlate. However, we decided to pass on it because it was in a commercial area on a busy street in the Pescarenico neighborhood, about 3/4 mile from the historic center of Lecco where we really wanted to live.

Visiting Cernobbio

A couple of days later, we took the bus to Cernobbio, just a few miles north of Como on the western shore of the lake. We were originally going to spend our last week in Italy there, but by this point, we had decided to return to Lecco that week instead. Cernobbio turned out to be a lovely, quaint little town, but by the end of our visit, we realized that we’d made the right decision not to spend an entire week there.

Cassoeula festival

Back in Como that night for dinner, I got to try a delicious Lombard specialty called cassoeula. It is a hearty winter dish of pork meat, short ribs, sausage, and Savoy cabbage, along with carrots, onions, celery, and warm spices, all baked in a casserole (from which the dish gets its name), and then traditionally served atop polenta and accompanied by a full-bodied red wine. It’s not always available in restaurants, but our stay happened to coincide with the annual Festival de la Cassoeula, during which restaurants throughout Lombardy woo diners with signs announcing OGGI CASSOEULA (“cassoeula today!”) and then compete to have their version of the dish voted the best in the region. This was my first and only cassoeula, but it was delicious, and I gave it five out of five stars on my ballot!

A walk around the historic center of Como

The following day, we took a self-guided audio walking tour around some of the historic sites in the center of Como, including the Porta Torre—a 131 feet (40 meters) tall fortified tower built in 1192, to defend what was then the main entrance of the city—and the beautiful Como Cathedral.

The hilltop village of Brunate

Situated on a steep hill about 1,700 feet (518 meters) above Como, the village of Brunate was a destination for noble families from the Como and Milan areas who built beautiful Art Nouveau-style holiday villas there. A funicular–an inclined railway with two counter-balanced cars raised and lowered by cables–was built in 1894 to link Brunate with Como below. The funicular ascends a 55% gradient during the seven-minute ride from the bottom to the top.

From a viewpoint at the Brunate funicular station, we could see all the way across Lake Como to Cernobbio on the opposite shore, and beyond that into Chiasso, Switzerland with the Alps on the horizon.

The Lombardy section of the Italian Alpine Club’s lengthy Sentiero Italia (“Italy Trail”) runs through Brunate. We decided to hike the one-mile (1.6 km) segment up to the Faro Voltiano (Volta’s Lighthouse). The fact that our trail guide said it would take about 40 minutes should have been a clue as to just how much “up” the hike entailed. Once we realized that, Cheryl wisely decided to let me go on to the top alone.

Volta’s Lighthouse stands on a hill in San Maurizio, about 500 feet (150 meters) above Brunate. The lighthouse was built in memory of Italian scientist and inventor Alessandro Volta–more on him in a moment–in 1927 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his death.

From the panoramic viewpoint at the base of the lighthouse, known as the Balcone delle Alpi (“Balcony of the Alps”), I could see the Pennine Alps of Switzerland on the horizon, with Cernobbio and the Swiss towns of Chiasso and Vacallo in the foreground. Some haze had accumulated in the valley by this time in the afternoon, but the view was still spectacular.

After I hiked the mile back down from the lighthouse (much easier than going up!) to meet up with Cheryl in Brunate, we returned to Como on the funicular just as sunset approached.

The Volta Temple

Como’s most famous historical figure was chemist and physicist Alessandro Volta (1745 –1827). The Tempio Voltiano (“Volta Temple”), unveiled in 1927 on the shore of Lake Como during the centenary observance of Volta’s death, was designed as a museum to honor his work and to preserve the few original fragments of his experimental tools that survived a disastrous fire during the 1899 Exposition. Many more of his tools that were reconstructed from his notes and models are also on exhibit.

As an acknowledged science geek, I enjoyed learning about Volta’s many distinguished accomplishments, including his discovery of the flammable gas methane in nearby marshes in 1776, and his invention of the voltaic cell–what we know today as the chemical battery–in 1799. Volta’s creation of the first continuous and reproducible source of electrical current was an important step in the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry, eventually leading to the development of modern electrical equipment.

Our verdict on Como

Our week in Como confirmed our initial impression: it is a scenic and very cosmopolitan city, but significantly larger and more touristy than Lecco. We enjoyed our visit, though–capped off by the tableside preparation of cacio e pepe in a wheel of Pecorino Romano cheese on our last night in the town. It was a fun and fittingly touristy end to our stay.

The next day, we returned to Lecco to continue looking for an apartment and familiarizing ourselves with the city that we planned eventually to call home.