Travelling with our 9 month old baby to Lake Como

Our time in Lake Como was the point in our first trip as a family, where we discovered that the reality of travelling with a baby wasn’t as straightforward as we had anticipated. This realisation changed the way we were used to travelling and brought about a whole new way to adventure.

One Umbrella, Two Parents, A Baby And A Whole Lot Of Luggage

After missing our train from Lucerne, Switzerland, we made it to Como, where it was absolutely pouring down with rain. The original plan was to arrive at Como San Giovanni train station and walk the 12 minutes to our accommodation, but, with only one umbrella between us, there was no way we were going to be able to do that without getting totally soaked.

In a situation like this, when we weren’t travelling with a baby, we would have just walked through it and not worried about getting saturated. But now that we had Miss Adventure with us, her comfort became our number one priority.

Unfortunately, there was no public transport that would take us near our accommodation and, being cautious first-time parents, we didn’t want to catch a taxi because we didn’t have a proper car seat for Miss Adventure. The only option we had left was to walk.

We hatched a strategy – one of us would ferry as much luggage to the accommodation, whilst the other waited at the train station with Miss Adventure. This would hopefully reduce the chance of everyone and everything getting drenched.

The only downside to this plan was that it brought about one of our main anxieties about travelling with our baby overseas – being separated from each other.

Sometimes, it’s hard enough caring for a baby in a familiar setting, so when faced with a foreign environment, things can get challenging. The one confidence we had was that we knew we could overcome any challenge together, but in this instance, we had no choice. With no way to communicate, we parted ways to put the plan in action.

Thankfully, the rain eased and we didn’t have any issues with finding our way back to each other or keeping Miss Adventure comfortable.

Exploring Como

During our time exploring Lake Como, we decided to base ourselves in the town of Como, located on the most southern point of the lake. We choose to stay here mainly due to accessibility reasons. It was an easy spot to enter/exit the region but would also provide a lot of amenities such as a variety of restaurants and bigger supermarkets to buy supplies.

The town, the largest populated area on the lakefront, still had its own unique charm. Walking around the winding maze of cobblestone streets, you felt like you could have been in a neighbourhood of a larger city, however, you were always a short walk away from the stunning beauty of the shoreline of Lake Como.

We spent our time here exploring local markets, relaxing in open green spaces, eating delicious foods from restaurants, buying fresh local ingredients to cook our own tasty pastas and enjoyed many lakeside walks.

There are many stunning towns scattered around the lake and during an extended stay in the area, it would be a great idea to try and base yourself in a couple of different villages to get a real feel of this part of Italy. However, when travelling with a child, it can be a little bit tricky to move around more frequently. The town of Como was the perfect place to base as a family to enjoy the calming presence of the lake.

Lines, Ticket Sales and Enter Gelato

From Como, it’s easy to take a ferry to one of the many towns scattered along the lake. We had planned on using the ferry system to explore, however, one thing we didn’t take into account before arriving were the crowds and how long the ferry transit times would be.

There are two ferry options, slow boats and fast boats. To get to the “golden triangle” of Lake Como (three towns in the centre of the lake = Bellagio, Varenna and Menaggio) it was either two hours on the slow boat or one hour on the express fast boat from the town of Como. Each day by mid-morning, the line for the ferry tickets was overwhelmingly long, with tickets selling out, and unfortunately, you couldn’t pre-purchase fast boat tickets online.

In our situation, working around Miss Adventure having two naps a day (and not necessarily guaranteeing a nap whilst on the move), we really needed fast boat tickets to maximize our time if we were taking ferries to destinations around the lake. We hadn’t looked up exactly how long the transit times were before we arrived and these lengthy ferry rides made the need for us to leave at more specific times, to work in with our family’s daily schedule. The only way to purchase a ticket was to brave the line, while standing in the scorching sun with no shade. The tickets were only valid for the same day of travel – even during peak summer period. The best thing to do is get to the ticket booth early to avoid an hour-long wait.

The first day we tried to get ferry tickets and realised this, we had to change our plans and try the boats another day. We headed over to the funicular station to travel up the mountain-side to the town of Brunate, which sits high above the lake and offers spectacular views.

Again, we ran into the realisation that crowds and timetables don’t work in your favour at Lake Como when travelling with a baby – the ticket line for the funicular was also massive and the wait time to board was just as long.

In both the above situations, if we were travelling without a baby, we could have just stuck out the wait times and persisted with the original plans, but with Miss Adventure, it wasn’t viable, given her daily routine.

Instead, we were able to explore further around the lakefront, walking along the promenade, stopping to watch the boats bobbing along and point out the different variety of birds flying low across the water to Miss Adventure’s delight. The change of plan that resulted in a slow afternoon enjoying the picturesque lake views turned into one of our favourite days in Como. Although the lines and long wait times were disappointing, reshuffling our plans didn’t stop us from having a great time together as a family, and obviously, we had to treat ourselves to gelato, the first of many more to come in Italy.

The Fast Boat On Lake Como

By our third day, we weren’t going to miss out on a spot on an early fast boat to Bellagio, so Mike shot out first thing in the morning to buy our ferry tickets, while Miss Adventure was having her breakfast. Shortly after, we boarded and before long we were zooming across the water with Miss Adventure, looking out the window, mesmerised by the powerful wake of the ferry.

As soon as we got to Bellagio, we tried to buy tickets back to Como on the mid-afternoon boat, thinking that the bobbing ferry ride would lull Miss Adventure to sleep on the way back, but that slot was completely sold out. The only other options were a slow boat at 4pm or an express ferry at 6:30pm (with 6:30pm being the last ferry of the day), so we purchased the express tickets with hopes that Miss Adventure would nap in her pram, whilst we explored.

Bellagio is a small village located in the centre of Lake Como. A popular tourist destination for good reason, offering scenic lake views with narrow cobblestone walkways set between charming shop fronts and restaurants. This is a must-see when visiting Lake Como.

Having a full day in Bellagio meant that we could slowly spend the time working our way through the town, away from the more tourist-dense areas.

We started by walking through the laneways that sloped up into the hills surrounding the lake. We browsed the local stores and stole glimpses of the lake through the buildings as we ascended above the waterline. On our way back down towards the shore, we stopped in at a paninoteca to grab some lunch, to picnic by the lake. We walked along the promenade, taking in the sweeping views of the landscape, enjoying our panini filled with fresh deli cut meat of pancetta and locally made provolone cheese.

After lunch, it was time to explore more of Bellagio and try to get Miss Adventure to have a nap. We strolled down to Parchetto della Punta, expecting her to fall asleep on the way, so that we could have another sit down and take in the views to the North of the town. We weren’t so lucky and Miss Adventure needed a little bit more coaxing to drift off to sleep.

When she finally fell asleep, we wandered back through town past the Basilica and stopped in Parco Martiri della Liberta to catch the last rays of sun before an unexpected downpour.

The best way to round out the day in Bellagio was with dinner overlooking the lake. We pulled up at a restaurant right along the waterfront, which we were convinced the prices would be through the roof – but it was reasonable in the end and we all shared a very large woodfired pizza – salami, red onion and ‘nduja, which Miss Adventure gladly ate. In fact, she went absolutely ape for the crusts – Italian pizza dough must be made with some secret ingredient that is just pure happiness, because that pizza was unreal.

The not-so-Fun-icular

We weren’t going to let the lines stop us, so towards the end of our week in Como, we headed back to the funicular station to ride up to Brunate. Again, the wait was long, but with some persistence, we boarded the very steep funicular and were treated to some fantastic views from above the lake.

Our aim was to walk through the town and up to the lighthouse that would offer panoramic views to the north. We didn’t expect it to be such a steep incline, so pushing Miss Adventure in the pram up the hill was a challenge, especially when still recovering from sickness. The maps told us that the walk would be only 21 minutes, but after walking 30 minutes, we were barely halfway. We gave up and turned back around, hoping to spend a little bit more time relaxing at lake-level.

That plan was delayed even further, as again, a long long line at the funicular station halted our movements back down the mountain.

This was a very challenging day in terms of getting around with Miss Adventure. We were at a standstill when we wanted to be on the move and we wanted to be standing still when on the move. We didn’t consider the terrain we were going into once we had made it to Brunate – the steepness of the walk really called for the use of a baby carrier, rather than a pram, which was cumbersome and made us less mobile. However, we didn’t realise how long we’d spend waiting in line for the funicular, in which case, the pram was crucial, so we could let Miss Adventure relax and not have to hold her in the heat. It felt like nothing was aligning and everything was working against us and what was meant to be a simple walk with the goal of reaching a viewpoint, became something that was tiresome and difficult.

Chillin’ and Cernobbio

Looking back, it feels hard for us to write about our time in Como. Not because we didn’t really enjoy our time there, but because we felt like everything we wanted to do had hurdles and roadblocks surrounding it, which made it feel harder than it should have been.

A lot of this came from managing and maintaining a routine for Miss Adventure, whilst also trying to manage and maintain our expectations on what we could experience. This saw us change the way that we approached travel and opened our eyes on how to fully embrace what it is to travel as a family.

On our last day in Como, we made a spontaneous decision to take a quick 15 minute ferry ride across the lake from Como to the tiny town of Cernobbio. We enjoyed Cernobbio as much as we did, because we went there with zero expectations, no boxes to tick and we didn’t feel the pressure of managing a tight schedule. With pram-walkable streets, less tourists and quaint-small town vibes, it filled us with a new-found energy and shifted the idea of how we wanted to approach the rest of the trip.

From this point forward, we understood that we needed to take everything as it comes and just enjoy a slow paced adventure as a family.

See you on the road!