Como Is Northern Italys Most Refined City For Culture And Cuisine – Forbes

Como's Palazzo Vista Hotel is set right on the main piazza at the lakefront.

Funny thing about the city of Como in Northern Italy is that many travel guides recommend gettingoutof town and sailing around Lake Como, rather than staying put in a city Ive come to love all on its own for its beauty, its size, its history and its food. Yes, you can hop a tour boat and visit all the wonders of Lake Comothe charming towns of Bellagio and Tremezzo, the funicular up to the mountain town of Brunatebut Como itself teems with things to do and see.

Como's Cathedral is composed of both Romanesque and late Gothic elements

Easily reached by train from Milan, Como has never been overrun with tourists (who use it as a base from which to explore the lake), and its manageable city center is laid out largely along rectangular lines, with impeccably clean streets and restored buildings that include modern monuments well out of the ordinary in large Italian cities. There is little of the baroque in Como, and its magnificent cathedral is the last of its kind in the Gothic style with Romanesque motifs, dating to the end of the 14th century.

It is a very appealing walking city, lying flat on the lakes edge, with a broad Piazza Cavour flanked with fine buildings, including the citys best and most modernVista Palazzo Lago di Como Hoteland the oldMetropole Suisse, though esthetically compromised by the grotesque banality of Hotel Barchetta Excelsior. Here is the obvious place to start, from the train station, or, if you come from the north through the citys Porto Nuovo gate, which bears strong resemblance to one in a De Chirico painting.

Como commemorates its native son Alessandro Volta with many monuments including this science museum

Como was home to Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), the inventor of the electric battery and someone who is widely held as a favorite native son in the city. You can tour on your own those places associated with the scientist, including the classical high schoolLiceo Voltanear the gate; Voltas house on Via Volta; theVolta Museumon Viale Marconi, built in 1927, where youll find the first version of the electric battery; the avant-gardeMonumentdesigned by architect Daniel Liebeskind at the bottom of Diga Foranea; Voltas tomb is within the Camnago Volta village; and theVolta Lighthouseup in Brunate, designed by Gabriele Giussani in 1927.

Como's war memorial is one of the most modern in Europe

The city was once center of the architectural style called Italian Rationalism, developed in the 1920s and 1930s based on principles of functionalism for which a building should clearly reflect the purpose for which it was created without much flourish. Such structures around town include theCamerlata Fountainby Cesare Cattaneo and Mario Radice in 1936; the innovative and influentialSantElia Kindergarten(1937) by Giuseppe Terragni with its wall of glass bringing light into the classrooms; theWar Memorialof reinforced concrete designed by Antonio SantElia and constructed by Giuseppe Terragni; well worth visiting is theCasa del Fascio, built in 1936 as the Fascist Party headquarters (now a law enforcement agency building) that epitomizes the restraint and balance of Italian Rationalism, which stands out amidst the rest of the old mundane buildings on the block.

The sculpture of a bull is reminiscent of that on New York's wall Street.

Something of this same sense of order and spatial dynamics is to be found in the shopping streets behind the main Piazza and the old extant medieval walls. There are wonderful food shops, bakeries and cafs, along with very special clothing stores devoted to local designers, including the darlingIl Girotondo degli Angelifor infants and children on Via Cinque Giornato.Tessabit, with two stores, has moderately priced mens and womens fashions, and for higher end there is Franca Roncoroni on Via Varesina, whileWolfordon Via Indipendenza sells exquisite lingerie; for housewares, and home dcor, check outDepon Via Carcano. There are, of course, the international fashion chain stores also in the city center.

An array of appetizers at the Palazzo Vista's Sotto Voce rooftop restaurant

A while back I wrote about where to eat in Como, so let me just jot down some names here: The finestalta cucinain the loveliest spot on the lake is at the Vista Palazzo Lago di Como HotelsSottovoce,where chefStefano Mattara works wonders with local ingredients. Chef Carlo Molon makes a worthwhile visit toKinchooutside of town at the Sheraton Lake Como. My favorite trattoria isOsteria Gallo, tucked into Via Vitani, where the di Toma family has over 37 years perfected the traditional fare of Lombardy, like braised pork and sweet prunes and chestnuts.And if you crave great pizza, stroll over to the pretty blue-and-whiteNapulePizzerias (there are two), where Papa Umberto and his three children, Ciro, Antonio and Katiuscia, have a high reputation in town and rightly so.

The Villa d'Este the late Residence of Her Majesty on the Lake of Como', 1820. View of the Villa ... [+] d'Este, (originally Villa del Garovo), at Cernobbio on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy. The villa and gardens were built 1565-1570, and later became the residence of Caroline of Brunswick, estranged wife of the future King George IV of the United Kingdom. She renamed it Nuova Villa d'Este, and had the park landscaped in the English style. Artist Unknown. (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

The lakes of Northern Italy all have their individual appeal, but for me the city of Como is expressive of the very best of classical Italian beauty and modernity, and for its quiet, its sparse tourist crowd and its sophisticated inhabitants, it is a place where you can avoid the frenzy elsewhere as Italy returns to normal.

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Como Is Northern Italys Most Refined City For Culture And Cuisine - Forbes