Returned from my short trip to Milano area.
What a pity I miss the latest post from Perche.
Whatever the case may be, I summarize what I did in case it could be useful for someone, adding links when possible. In essence, I did what Perche suggested.
I took a train from Milano Central Station to
Varenna (
pdf timetable). It's around 1 hour.
From the station I follow the signs to
Castle Vezio. The route it's different from the one starting in the city center, that Perche describes with detail at
http://onedayinitaly.com/index.php/b...o-castle-vezio. I followed partially the
"Sentiero del Viandante" (Wanderer's Trail).
In my way down, I followed Perche's route.
After that, I went to the
Lido de Varenna (private beach;
map). I was looking for a public beach, but the closer I found was a not very attractive 'spiaggia per cani' (beach for dogs), 500 meters north from the Lido. As it was hot, I decided to pay for the Lido. For me, a good election, with showers, changing rooms, umbrellas and deck chairs. Next to a restaurant-bar.
Water temperature was
cold for my taste (18 degrees Celsius, first week of July), but it was nice for the most part of swimmers.
I had a late
lunch at
Albergo del Sole, recommended by the Rough Guide guidebook. Good, cheap pizza.
Then I took a
ferry to Bellagio. Very frequent in July, not need to plan in advance.
Bellagio is nice, but really touristy. I did some window-shopping, eat gelato and after a while I took the regular bus to
Como.
As I visited Como in the past, I didn't go to the city center. Spent some time at Villa Olmo park and did a long walk around the
lakefront.
Then, I took a train back to Milan.
If you stay in Como until late (later than 8.00 PM) and need to take a train to Milan, check the timetable, because regional, inexpensive trains are less frequent after that hour and maybe you need to wait ages or pay more for a faster IC train (5,25 € vs 13,00 €)
I reserve the western shore (Menaggio, Tremezzo, Pigra...) for a future trip!
Thank you for all your comments (and sorry for my English)!