Vacation Home On Lake Como

to tanker4413:

have you already found something suitable to you?

if not, have you searched on the italian real estate search engine called immobiliare (dot) it? On it you should be able to:

1) switch to the english language (if you're not comfortable with italian)

2) draw a map, with your pc's mouse, on the area you're intrested in, resulting in a list showing various homes/buildings you can sort with various filters (e.g. surface, price, etc.)

Thank you for the advice.  We have a realtor working on our behalf that represents imobilaire.  We also use Idealista which is a very good search engine. 

Where in West Como would you recommend?  we like the west side of the west leg.

On the west side of the lake of Como, solely relying on the public transport side i'd probably choose Cadenabbia Griante or Menaggio, because they both have a ferry that carries people and cars on the other side of the lake (east shore), in the town of Varenna, which is served by a railway station (on the rail line Milano-Lecco-Colico-Sondrio).

But if I where given a choice to buy a home, I would buy one in Bellagio, in the center of the lake

We were told that Bellagio shuts down outside of the tourist season and there is not much going on.  is this true?  is there plenty of stores and restaurants open for business or does it become a ghost town.

    We were told that Bellagio shuts down outside of the tourist season and there is not much going on.  is this true?  is there plenty of stores and restaurants open for business or does it become a ghost town.
   

    -@tanker4413

If you look on the town's website there is something happening all the time even in the off-peak season.

to tanker4413:

About the liveliness of a town, remember that even in touristic towns there is a residing populiation who have to make a living in it, all year round, not only during the tourist season.

The bigger the town, the more shops you find.

As the lake of Como is in between mountains, habitable land is scarce at best, so you will find small shops and not shopping malls, for example.

But, you'll still find shops for everyday's life.

By the way, Bellagio has a population of 3,820, Menaggio of 3,273, Tremezzo 1,314.

Transportation by road: from Como to Tremezzo and/or Menaggio there is just one single road, with frequent trafic jams. Except during night, it should take an hour of driving from Como, if you're lucky. Usually it is more than one drive, due to trafic,

On the other side, Bellagio has three roads: one to Como, one to Lecco and one to Asso/Erba (between Como and Lecco). That would mean much less chances to find a trafic jam.

Varenna, on the east side of the lake, has a (statal) road, on the coast of the lake, plus a highway less than a mile away that leads to Lecco. Plus a railway station to Lecco and Milan

All of them have regular scheduled ferry boat public transport.

If Expat does not cancel my links, you can look on Wikipedia in English for Bellagio, Menaggio and Tremezzo, plus the lake of Como

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellagio,_Lombardy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menaggio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremezzo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Como

This information is very helpful.  Thank you so much for taking the time to respond.  We are coming to the lake for 3 weeks in June and hope to find a place to make an offer on.  There a a couple of spots in San Siro that have caught our eye as well.