Lake Como has become an icon taken by storm: packed ferries, queues at the villas and congested lakefronts on weekends. If you are after the same mirror-still waters, stone villages and mountains that plunge into the water, but without the crush, these alternatives offer the romantic atmosphere of Lario in places that are still silent.
Lago di Como in high season: → the alternatives below are far quieter.
Five lakes across Piedmont and Lombardy as an alternative to Lake Como: villages, hermitages and romantic itineraries without the crowds of Bellagio.
Very quiet Jun 29, 2026
On Lake Lugano stands the oldest Christian building in Switzerland: an octagonal baptistery fifteen centuries old, still little visited.
Very quiet Jun 23, 2026
Just steps from Bardolino's lakefront promenade, the church of San Severo reveals an early medieval crypt and a surprising cycle of Romanesque frescoes.
Very quiet Jun 23, 2026
The circuit of Lake Bolsena, in the Tuscia area of Viterbo: the largest volcanic lake in Europe, among stone villages, vineyards and two little islands. A slow, silent alternative to Lake Trasimeno, far from mass tourism, with clean waters and villages that still live on fishing and farming.
Very quiet Jun 30, 2026
High above Lake Ohrid in North Macedonia, the tiny church of San Giovanni a Kaneo frames one of the most serene, photogenic views in the Balkans.
Very quiet Jun 21, 2026
Among Dolomite-like peaks, black pine forests and the deepest canyon in Europe, Durmitor offers Balkan high-mountain country without the queues of the Alps.
Very quiet Jun 21, 2026
On the eastern shore of Lake Como, from Abbadia Lariana to Colico, an ancient mule track runs high above the water. While tour buses crowd into Bellagio and Varenna, here you walk among villages, olive trees, and near-silent terraces.
Very quiet Jun 30, 2026