The colourful village and the Wayfarers' Path
On the eastern shore of Lake Como, opposite Bellagio, Varenna is perhaps the most charming village on the lake: a cluster of pastel-coloured houses, red, yellow and ochre, crowding around a tiny harbour, with steep stepped lanes and a romantic lakeside walkway, the Passeggiata degli Innamorati, suspended over the water.
Villa Monastero, built on the site of a twelfth century Cistercian convent, has a splendid botanical garden stretching for two kilometres along the lake, with palms, agaves, citrus fruit, cypresses and exotic plants, and a house-museum with furniture from the nineteenth century. Nearby, Villa Cipressi also has terraced gardens down to the water. Above the village, the Castello di Vezio, a medieval tower, offers a magnificent view and hosts falconry shows. Varenna is a stop on the Sentiero del Viandante, the "Wayfarers' Path", an ancient mule track that runs along the eastern shore of the lake from Abbadia Lariana to Colico, through villages, woods and terraces. Just north, the Fiumelatte, one of the shortest rivers in Italy, gushes out of a cave from March to October.
Tip: Varenna is reachable by train from Milan; walk up to the castle in about twenty minutes along a path among olive trees.
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