The Lakeside Towns of Northern Italy, Before the Season Begins
By July, Lake Como is a procession of tour boats and celebrities. Lake Garda fills with German and Austrian families. Lake Maggiore's waterfront restaurants triple their prices. But visit these same towns in April or early May, before the season begins, and you find something rare: the Italian lake district in its natural state, unhurried and genuinely beautiful, with wisteria blooming over empty terraces.
Bellagio, at the point where Lake Como divides into its two southern arms, is justifiably famous and justifiably avoided in summer. In April, the cobblestone streets are navigable, the gardens at Villa Melzi are in full bloom without queues, and the lakefront restaurants serve the same view at half the price. The car ferry from Varenna takes fifteen minutes and runs on schedule.
Orta San Giulio, on Lake Orta west of Maggiore, remains relatively unknown even in peak season. In spring, it is practically deserted. The medieval island of San Giulio, reached by a five-minute boat ride, holds a Romanesque basilica and a path called the Way of Silence lined with contemplative plaques. The Hotel San Rocco overlooks the lake with the quiet confidence of a place that does not need to advertise.
Sirmione, the narrow peninsula extending into Lake Garda's southern shore, houses both a thirteenth-century Scaligero castle and natural thermal springs. April visitors can walk the castle walls in solitude and bathe in the outdoor thermal pool at Aquaria spa with the lake stretching to the mountains. Summer visitors do neither without a two-hour wait.
Stresa on Lake Maggiore provides access to the Borromean Islands, where the baroque gardens of Isola Bella reopen in late March. The extravagance of the terraced gardens — white peacocks, citrus groves, cascading statuary — is best appreciated without a crowd. Ferry schedules and seasonal opening times are listed at https://www.isoleborromee.it.
The weather in April is imperfect and that is precisely the point. Clouds roll across the lake surface, rain arrives in brief afternoon showers, and the light shifts constantly, producing the atmospheric conditions that inspired Romantic painters and writers from Stendhal to Shelley. The postcard-perfect July day is less interesting than the moody April morning.
Visit before the season begins and you experience these towns as their residents do — eating at the trattoria they actually frequent, walking streets free from souvenir stalls, and sitting on a lakeside bench without competition. That version of the Italian lakes is available for roughly six weeks each spring, and it is incomparably superior to the version the rest of the world pays premium prices to see.
