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Lecco
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Flanked by mountains of scored granite, Como's eastern fork is austere and fjord-like, at its most atmospheric in the morning mists. The villages wedged along the shoreline are far more workaday than those of the rest of the lake, and
LECCO
, at its foot, is a frantic commercial centre. You almost certainly won't want to stay in Lecco, but its public transport connections are good, and there are some challenging hikes in the nearby mountains. Trains run to Como, Milan and Bergamo, and back up the eastern shore by way of Varenna to Sondrio, and there are buses into the mountain villages.
Buses
leave from outside the
train station
, from where it's a brisk five-minute walk to the
ferry station
(go straight down the central street, Via Cavour, and across Piazza Garibaldi, to the shore and turn right). Lecco's business-like
tourist office
is on Via N. Sauro, off Piazza Garibaldi (Mon-Sat 9am-12.30pm & 2.30-6.30pm; June same hours plus Sun 9am-12.30pm; tel 0341.362.360,
www.cot.it
). If you need to
stay
, the only central hotel is the
Moderno
on Piazza Diaz, outside the train station (tel 0341.286.519; L90,000-120,000/46.48-61.98). There are a number of
snack bars
and pizzerias around the station, though none of them is particularly special.
If you've time to kill you could pop into Lecco's Basilica , which boasts a set of fourteenth-century Giottesque frescoes, and the birthplace of Alessandro Manzoni, author of the great nineteenth-century novel I Promessi Sposi ("The Betrothed"). The Villa Manzoni , on Via Amendola (head left out of the station along Via Sassi then Via Marconi), is open as a museum (Tues-Sun 9.30am-2pm; L5000/2.58).
Above Lecco at the end of the road to
MALNAGA
a
cable car
- and paths #1, #7 and #18 - climb up to the
Piani d'Erna
, from where trails lead further into the mountains. Alternatively, buses from outside the train station run up to
PIANI RESINELLI
, another starting-point for hikes. These are not Sunday afternoon strolls, however, and unless you are experienced, you really should get hold of a reliable walking book as well as a good map before you go. Many of the walks involve scaling a
via ferrata.
Some stretches are vertical, and once you've started it's often impossible to turn back - the
vie ferrate
are popular and there will probably be a queue behind you. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Italy,
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