Lake Como has a crowd problem in high summer, but one writer for Condé Nast Traveler found a workaround: skip the famous lakeside towns and base yourself in the hills above them. She booked a characterful Airbnb in Perledo, a tiny village perched above Varenna, for an August birthday trip with her mother and sister — and came away convinced this is the better way to experience the lake.
Perledo sits a short taxi or bus ride up the mountain from Varenna's train station, which makes it reachable without a car — a genuine advantage, since parking around the lake is a headache. The apartment itself leaned traditional rather than sleek: green cabinets, warm wood, tiled floors, and a bathroom window framed in pistachio green that opened straight onto mountain and lake views. The balcony became the trip's centre of gravity, used for slow morning espressos and cornetti while boats crossed the water below.
The practical details are what make this useful for other travellers. The host arranged taxi numbers ahead of arrival, stocked the pantry with oil, vinegar and seasonings, and shared ferry schedules and walking routes. Better still, the town runs a free Perledo Night Bus from 7 p.m. to midnight, stopping a ten-minute walk from the apartment — the only sensible way to get down to Varenna for evening ferries and dinner without hiking a mountain road in the dark.
Varenna itself is notably calmer than Como town or Bellagio, though restaurants there close early, around 9 p.m. In Perledo, Bar Milano doubles as the local bus stop and morning espresso HQ — the apricot croissants get a specific shout-out — and the walk there passes fountains and roadside shrines with the lake glittering on one side. The family's big splurge was a four-hour birthday lunch at Passalacqua, the boutique hotel in Moltrasio, while other days were spent ferry-hopping. In Bellagio they walked Salita Serbelloni, the well-known staircase street lined with artisan shops, where a century-old family business called Bellagio New Wave sells jewellery and rosaries.
The takeaway for anyone planning a Como trip in peak season: the big-name towns get loud and packed by late afternoon, but a hill village like Perledo puts you ten minutes from the ferries while giving you genuine quiet, local life, and lake views at a fraction of the glamour-town premium. Prices for the apartment weren't disclosed, but the pattern — book the characterful hillside rental first, build the trip around it — is one the writer now swears by.
Story via Condé Nast Traveler.
