Como to Brunate Walk: What the Official Sources Publish

The Result for the Reader

The pattern is consistent. The climb from Como up to Brunate on foot appears on no official page as a route with a distance or a time. The only official sentence about the historic path is on italia.it, which says the funicular replaced the old mule track between the two towns.

Every walk the funicular's own excursions page lists starts in Brunate at the top, not in Como. The table below shows each source and its figure, where there is one.

What We Do Instead

Blogs and hiking apps do describe mule tracks from Como up to Brunate, with names and walking times that disagree with each other. None of those routes is published by the Comune di Brunate, the Comune di Como or the transport operator, so this guide treats them as unverified and prints none of them. That is not pedantry. A route that no official page describes has no one standing behind its distance or its time, and a time copied from a blog is a poor thing to bet daylight on.

Our advice is practical. If you decide to walk up anyway, carry a current map on your phone, start with a generous window of daylight, and treat any time estimate you find as a guess rather than a promise. The documented alternative is simple: ride up on the funicular, which takes 7 minutes and runs every 12 to 15 minutes from 06:00 to midnight, and do your walking at the top, where the official sources do describe paths. The one-way ticket at $4.27 (€3.70) is half the return fare, so a ride in one direction costs you little.

If you want to cut the climb short without committing to the full ride, the funicular has two intermediate stops. The Comune di Brunate names request stops at Como Alta and Carescione, and ATM's timetable names the optional intermediate stop at Carescione.

No separate part-way fare is published. The current fare sheet prints a one-way ticket of $4.27 (€3.70) and a return of $8.54 (€7.40), and nothing between them, so plan on the standard one-way ticket whatever stop you ask for. How to signal the request on board is not stated in the sources we read. Note also that no official page describes a walking route from either request stop up to Brunate, so riding part way still leaves you without a documented path for the remainder.

What You Walk and What It Costs

This is the walk the official sources do support. Regione Lombardia's in-lombardia.it describes a panoramic mule trail from Brunate to the lighthouse, about 1.2 km, through chestnut, birch and pine woods, and calls it suitable for everyone. Italia.it says walkers reach the Faro Voltiano from the centre of Brunate in less than half an hour. The lighthouse was built in 1927 as Como's gift to Alessandro Volta on the centenary of his death, and the octagonal tower stands 29 metres high with 143 steps up to its circular balconies.

Practical detail. The lighthouse has been closed since 2024 for repairs that have not been carried out, as EspansioneTv reported quoting both Comuni, and no reopening date is published. The walk still works, and the tower is seen from outside. The ASF urban bus N9 from Brunate to the Faro Voltiano is suspended for works. From the funicular's upper station the straight-line distance to the lighthouse is 896 m, which makes about 15 minutes' walking at a normal pace, our estimate. Full visiting detail is on our Faro Voltiano page, and more on the village in our Brunate guide.

The Lake Como DMO gives one sentence on the long walk: the Dorsale del Triangolo Lariano connects the San Maurizio lighthouse above Brunate to the Bellagio peak along the ridge. The funicular's excursions page lists the Dorsale in two variants, classic and by the crests, both starting in Brunate. No distance and no walking time for the ridge appear on any official page we read, so we print none.

That lack of figures matters for planning. The ridge runs away from the funicular, and the return options are simple: walk back the way you came, or arrange a return from further along the ridge, for which no official connection is published here. Our advice is to treat the Dorsale as an out-and-back with a turnaround you choose yourself, and to turn round in time for daylight. The funicular runs until midnight, but a ridge path in the dark is not the way to use that fact.

Rain concentrates in May, August, October and November. Plan around the afternoon sky as much as the temperature.

Before You Go

Our advice list is short. Start with enough daylight to finish and get down. Wear shoes with grip, since the documented mule trail and the streets of Brunate are steep.

Carry a phone with a current map, because the climb has no official route description to follow. Take water. For questions on the spot, the Brunate infopoint next to the town library is open daily from May to September and on weekends and holidays from October to April, 10:00-16:00.

And if the day collapses, the funicular runs every 12 to 15 minutes until midnight, so the way down is never in doubt. More on the seasons in our Como weather guide.