Como Taxi Guide: Ranks, Phone Booking and Uber

Ranks and Hailing

The Comune di Como's own taxi procedure page states that taxi ranks, called posteggi, are located in public places designated by the Comune and suitably signposted. Passengers are picked up at these stands, by radio dispatch, or by hailing a passing taxi directly. Choice of stand among available spots is free to licence holders, on a first-come first-served basis at each rank. The national framework is Law 21 of 15 January 1992, with the Codice della Strada underneath it.

Here is the honest part. The same procedure page says that stand locations, shift rotas and tariffs are set by the Regolamento comunale Taxi, and then prints neither the rank addresses nor a single fare figure. No other official Comune page we could find publishes a rank list or a taxi tariff either. The practical consequence is that you cannot plan a Como taxi route or price from an official document. Your options are to look for the signposted taxi stands on the ground, or to phone ahead and agree a pickup point.

What the Fare Will Be

Because no official tariff table is published online for Como, we cannot print a fare for a city ride, a station run or an airport transfer, and neither can the airports themselves. Malpensa, Linate and Bergamo airports publish no taxi fares to Como on their official pages.

What you can do instead is simple. State your destination before getting in, and ask the driver what the ride will cost before the car moves. For fixed reference points, the comparison table lists what every non-taxi option costs from official sources, and our costs page puts those figures in the context of a day's budget.

Radio Taxi Como

Radio Taxi Como is the cooperative that runs radio dispatch in Como, and its own site states it has operated in the city and province since 1991, with satellite and GPS dispatch. The number to call is +39 031 261515.

Booking channels are wider than the phone alone. You can book by phone, through the InTaxi app, by WhatsApp, through the online booking form on the cooperative's site, and pay with Globix mobile payment. The site does not list specific taxi stand addresses, which keeps it consistent with the Comune's silence on the subject.

When you call, have four things ready. Your pickup address, a landmark the driver can find, your destination, and the number of people and bags. Standard Italian phone format from abroad is the +39 prefix, so the full number is +39 031 261515.

Where to Ask in Person

No official rank map exists. The tourist information desks are the staffed places where you can ask for the nearest signposted stand. The desks and their published details are in the table below.

Uber in Como

Uber's own Como page is blunt about it. You cannot request a taxi in the city of Como with the Uber app, but you can choose a ride with Uber Black. Uber Black is Uber's premium car category, and that is the only option the page offers for Como. UberX is not mentioned on the Como page at all.

The practical consequence is that the Uber app is not a substitute for a Como taxi here. If the Uber Black price at your pickup moment looks high, the phone call to Radio Taxi Como on +39 031 261515 is the local alternative.

Other Ride Apps

Two other apps that cover many Italian cities are itTaxi and FREENOW. We could not verify their Como coverage from their own official pages in our research, so we will not claim they work here. If you use either app, open it in Como and check what it shows before relying on it.

The InTaxi app is a separate Italian booking app, and Radio Taxi Como names it among its own booking channels.

No Official Rank List

It bears repeating because it catches people out. The Comune's taxi procedure page says ranks sit at signposted public places, and the Regolamento comunale Taxi sets the locations, but no official page prints the addresses. So we will not invent a list of stand locations for Como San Giovanni, Como Nord Lago or the pier, even though taxi stands do exist at signposted spots in the city.

What we can give you is the geography of the arrival points. Como San Giovanni is the mainline station above the centre, with an info point in its atrium open daily 09:00-16:00 on +39 342 0076403. Como Nord Lago sits close to the lakefront and the ferry piers. The ferry landing stage is on Piazza Cavour, with the IAT tourist office on the same square at number 17, phone +39 031 269712. The ASF bus station is at Piazza Matteotti. Walk out of any of these and look for the taxi stand signs, or call Radio Taxi Como on +39 031 261515 and give the arrival point as your pickup address. Full station detail is in our Como San Giovanni station guide.

No Published Taxi Fares

None of the three airports most used for Como publish a taxi fare to the city. Malpensa does not, Linate does not, and Bergamo does not. An unpriced airport ride is a bad starting position.

Ask for the price before getting in, or skip the negotiation entirely with the options below.

The Coach, the Cheapest Published Airport Link

The flibco coach runs Malpensa to Como, serving Grandate and Como San Giovanni, from $11.53 (€9.99) booked online, in about 50 minutes. That is a fixed, published, bookable price for the same journey a taxi would make. Compare the two in the table above and book the coach on the flibco site.

Trains From Milan

From Milan city, the train is the established choice, at $6.23 (€5.40) for the Milan to Como regional fare. One trap to know. Malpensa has no single rail ticket to Como, you need two separate tickets for the two legs, so the train from the airport is less smooth than the coach.

Our Milan to Como guide covers the routes in detail.

Navigazione Laghi, the company that runs the lake's scheduled boats and ferries, runs no on-demand water taxi service. Its own website covers only timetabled boats, car ferries, fast hydrofoil services, cruises and charter. Beyond that, Lake Como Tourism's own pages list no water taxi operators for the city of Como, and we will not invent names.

So if you were hoping to wave down a boat at the Piazza Cavour pier and pay a meter fare, that service does not exist in the official offer. What does exist, and what most visitors actually want, is the scheduled ferry. The urban hop from Como to Tavernola costs $1.73 (€1.50), and longer runs up the lake are priced by band. Read the routes, piers and fares in our Como ferry guide.

For time on the water under your own control, there are two bookable routes. A skippered boat tour with a fixed departure, such as the small-group boat tour with Prosecco, or a self-drive rental described in our boat rental guide. Neither is a taxi, but both get you onto the lake on demand, at a published price.