Welcome to Lake Como Italy

Welcome to Lake Como, Italy

A feast for the senses, Lake Como, or Lago di Como in Italian, is one of the world’s most romantic travel destinations, and has been popular since Roman times.

Nestled in the Italian Lake district, and surrounded by hills and mountains, Lake Como is just across the border from Switzerland and only a 45 minute drive from Milan and three major airports. Charming towns and villages dot the lake’s perimeter. These are linked by ferries that are handy for public transportation and a boon for sightseeing and photography.

Perhaps no other region in Italy offers the variety of cultural activities, delectable cuisine and splendid scenery as Lago di Como.

Lake Como (Lago di Como in Italian, also known as Lario; Latin: Larius Lacus) is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of 146 km², making it the third largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore. At over 400m deep it is one of the deepest lakes in Europe and the bottom of the lake is more than 200m below sea-level.

Name:

The lake's name in Latin is Larius, Italianized as Lario, but this name is rarely used; it is usually called Lago di Como (literally "Lake of Como"). In guidebooks the lake may be variously described as "Lake Como", "Lake of Como", or "Como Lake."

While the town of Como is referred to as "Como", the lake itself is never referred to solely by this name. (This is not true of another lake in Italy, Lake Garda, where "Garda" may refer to either a town on its shores, or the lake).

Geography:

The lake is shaped like an upside-down “Y”. The northern branch begins at the town of Colico, while the towns of Como and Lecco sit at the ends of the southwestern and southeastern branches respectively. The small towns of Bellagio, Menaggio and Varenna are situated at the intersection of the three branches of the lake: a triangular boat service operates between them.

Lake Como is fed in large part by the Adda River, which enters the lake near Colico and flows out at Lecco. This geological conformation makes the southwestern branch a dead end, and so Como, unlike Lecco, is often flooded.

The mountainous pre-alpine territory between the two southern arms of the lake—between Como, Bellagio and Lecco—is known as the Larian Triangle, or Triangolo lariano. The source of the river Lambro is here. At the centre of the triangle, the town of Canzo is the seat of the Comunità montana del Triangolo Lariano, an association of the 31 municipalities which represent the 71,000 inhabitants of the area.

SOURCE: http://www.cpmitaly.net/index.cfm