Como in 2 Days

City First, Lake Second

The city sights carry the tighter calendar. The Tempio Voltiano and the Pinacoteca civica are closed every Monday, and the cathedral is closed to tourist visits on every Sunday and holy day in 2026. The boats run daily in both directions, including the 8:40 SR4 out and the 17:05 SR21 back, so the lake day works on any day of the week. Put the city on a Monday-to-Saturday and the lake on the remaining day and the two days fit together with no gaps.

There is a second reason to keep day one in the city. The cathedral is 237 metres in a straight line from Piazza Cavour, where the boat piers are and where day two starts at 8:25, so one base serves both days. Everything day one needs is inside the walls or a short walk from them, which is the shape of the full one day in Como itinerary.

Two city sites are off the menu for now. The Museo Archeologico Paolo Giovio and the Museo storico Giuseppe Garibaldi are closed for maintenance, so the itinerary does not send anyone there. Villa Olmo's building is closed for restoration, but its park is regularly open and free, and it earns its afternoon slot.

Why Bellagio and Not Varenna From Como

Como sits at the southern end of the western arm of the lake. Bellagio and Varenna face each other further north. By fare band, Como to Bellagio is band 6 and Como to Varenna is band 7, so Bellagio is the cheaper target: $13.84 (€12) one way on the slow boat against $15.57 (€13.50) for Varenna, and the band 6 day pass at $31.10 (€27) against $34.00 (€29.50) for band 7.

Bellagio also has the timetable on its side. The fast boat SR4 leaves Como at 8:40 and is in Bellagio at 9:20, and the SR21 back at 17:05 lands at 17:50, both daily. This page has not checked the Varenna runs, so it makes no timing claim for them. If Varenna is the priority, give it its own day using the day trips from Como page.

The table lists the per-person prices that appear in the two-day plan. Where a cheaper or family rate exists, it is in the note column.

The Two-Day Totals, Worked Out

Day one, with the cathedral and the Tempio Voltiano on single tickets and the funicular return, comes to $22.40 (€19.40): €6 + €6 + €7.40. With the two-site Art Pass instead of the two singles it is $21.20 (€18.40). The Faro Voltiano adds nothing, because it has been closed since 2024. Food and the tourist tax on your room are extra, and the tax rates are in where to sleep.

Day two has three honest prices. Fast boat both ways on single tickets is $39.20 (€34). Slow boat out and fast boat back is $33.50 (€29). A band 6 day pass is $31.10 (€27), but it covers a fast boat only with the $5.77 (€5) supplement, so the pass with one fast leg is $36.90 (€32). On a plain Como to Bellagio and back, singles win. The pass earns its price only when you add another stop inside band 6, such as Tremezzo, Villa Carlotta or Menaggio. The tariff chart prints bands counted from Como, not from Bellagio, so this page does not price a Bellagio to Tremezzo single.

The bus is the floor under all of it. The C130 from Como San Giovanni to Bellagio Lido is $5.08 (€4.40) by contactless card, 69 minutes each way, so a bus day costs $10.15 (€8.80), less than any boat combination, for a road journey instead of a lake crossing.

The table compares the morning ways out of Como. The fast boat (servizio rapido) sells tickets with no intermediate stops, the ordinary boat calls at the shore piers, and the bus takes the east shore road through Nesso.

The Ways Back to Como

By boat, the SR21 leaves Bellagio at 17:05 and docks in Como at 17:50 daily, and the SR23 follows at 18:20 arriving 18:58. Both are rapido runs, so on a day pass each needs the $5.77 (€5) supplement and on singles cost $19.61 (€17). Earlier, the SR11 leaves Bellagio at 10:57 and reaches Como at 11:42, which suits a short-visit version of the day.

By road, the C130 leaves Bellagio Lido at 17:03 and reaches Como Lago at 18:12 and Como San Giovanni at 18:17. The last regular run of the day leaves Bellagio Lido at 19:03 and reaches Como Lago at 20:12. The Monday-to-Saturday schedule also prints an 18:03 and 18:45 before that last bus. Buy each bus leg as its own ticket, or tap the same contactless card on the green validator for the flat $5.08 (€4.40) fare each way.

One more boat exists in the late afternoon: the SR20 leaves Como at 17:10 and reaches Bellagio at 18:16 daily, which only matters if you invert the day and sleep in Bellagio, which this itinerary does not do.

Sleep near Como Lago station and the Piazza Cavour piers. The 8:25 arrival at the ticket office for the 8:40 SR4 is a short walk from that district, and the 17:50 return drops you at the same spot with the evening promenade in front of you. The walled city works too, at the cost of a few more minutes with luggage. Como San Giovanni is the uphill station and the C130 departure point, slightly less convenient for the boats. The full district-by-district breakdown is on where to stay.

The tourist tax is charged per person per night by the Comune: 4 and 5 star hotels $5.77 (€5), 3 star $4.61 (€4), 1 and 2 star and B&Bs, affittacamere and holiday rentals $3.46 (€3), hostels, campsites and agriturismi $2.31 (€2). Under-14s are exempt and the tax caps at 4 consecutive nights. For two nights in a 3-star, that is $9.23 (€8) per adult on top of the room rate.

Day one covers the cathedral, the walled centre, the lakefront, Villa Olmo and Brunate without rushing. Day two covers Bellagio properly, with three hours before lunch and an optional Tremezzo hop, and still returns you to Como for dinner. What two days do not cover are the second branch of the lake and the Swiss side.

A third day unlocks either Lugano by train, 34 minutes on the RE80 in the sample Swiss timetable read for one weekday, or Varenna, which deserves its own unhurried visit rather than a tag-on. Both fit the pattern of the day trips from Como page. If you only have these two days, let Bellagio have its full day and keep the swaps for a return trip.

Lugano by Train

The TILO S10 leaves Como San Giovanni every 30 minutes through the day, and the RE80 makes the run in 34 minutes in the Swiss timetable sample for one weekday. Check the SBB or Trenord app for your own date, since times shift. The Arcobaleno cross-border ticket costs CHF 11.80 adult one way, sold in euros in Lombardy, and is valid 4 hours for the whole route.

To enter Switzerland you need a passport or, for EU and EFTA nationals, an identity card, and some foreign nationals need a visa. The detail is on Lugano from Como.

Cernobbio Instead of Bellagio

Cernobbio is band 1 from Como, $3.46 (€3) one way on the ordinary boat, about 13-14 minutes on the runs read from the summer timetable. It pairs with the lakefront walk out of town, and the route and sights are on Como to Cernobbio walk and Cernobbio. It is the half-day version of the lake when a full day on the water is too much.

Brunate on Foot Instead of the Funicular

Italy's tourism portal says the funicular replaced the old mule track between Como and Brunate, but no official page read describes a walking route up with a distance or a time, so this site prints none. What is described officially starts at the top: the mule trail from Brunate to the Faro Voltiano, about 1.2 km through chestnut, birch and pine woods per Regione Lombardia, and less than half an hour from the centre of Brunate per italia.it. Ride up and walk that.

The full finding is on Como to Brunate walk.