Como
On the bohemian trail: divas, queens and one Hollywood neighbour
Ready-made route
Why has world fame spent two centuries hiding on this lake? 23 stops, a runaway queen with spies at her gate, Visconti, Versace and the village that fined Clooney's fans.
- 4.5 hDuration
- 21.1 kmDistance
- 24Stops
- from €11.99Price
- 38 people are looking at this
- Last unlocked 17 minutes ago
What's included
- Audio guide for every stop
- Works offline once downloaded
- Walking map with the exact order
- Yours to keep, no subscription
One-off payment
We send the route and a one-tap link into the app. No account, no password needed.
The walk, stop by stop
The first three stops are free to read here — the rest come with the route in the app.
Teatro Sociale
Piazza Giuseppe Verdi, via Vincenzo Bellini
- The six Corinthian columns across the façade
- The monumental neoclassical entrance porch
- The full façade seen from Piazza Giuseppe Verdi
A Serious Guest List
Performers here included violinist Niccolò Paganini, soprano Giuditta Pasta, and tenor Francesco Tamagno. The Sociale may have struggled for space, but not for major names.
Too Small, Again
By the early 20th century, the building could no longer accommodate everyone who wanted to attend. Several expansion plans were considered, but Como ultimately kept the Sociale as it was and built another theatre, which opened in September 1910.
When the theatre proved too small in the 1850s, Como added 38 boxes, bringing the total to 98. The solution was simple: fit more of the audience around the stage.
Open in MapsComo Cathedral
Piazza del Duomo, 22100 Como
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- The floor plaque associated with Volta
- The cathedral from Piazza del Duomo
- The worship space viewed from beside the plaque
Three Names, One Cathedral
Its full Italian name is Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, though it is also called the Duomo di Como. In Lombard, it is Dòmm de Còmm. The cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
The Bishop’s Seat
This is Como’s Catholic cathedral and the seat of the Bishop of Como. It is not only a monument; it remains a working place of worship.
Volta’s mausoleum pairs allegorical figures of Science and Religion, echoing the two sides of his life brought together by the cathedral plaque.
Open in MapsBroletto
Piazza Duomo 2, Como
- The Broletto positioned between the cathedral and the bishop’s palace
- The cathedral-facing southern end, reduced during the cathedral’s expansion
A Northern Italian Family
Como’s Broletto belongs to a family of civic buildings found across northern Italy. Milan, Brescia, Pavia, Piacenza, Monza, Novara, and several other cities have their own broletti: places for public assemblies, administration, and justice.
From Orchard to Town Hall
The word “broletto” came through Medieval Latin and probably derives from a Celtic word. It first meant a small orchard or garden, then a field enclosed by a wall. A word for fenced greenery somehow ended up attached to the machinery of communal government.
The expanding cathedral construction site claimed part of the Broletto’s southern end and its external staircase. The close fit you see today came at the town hall’s expense.
Open in Maps
What comes after the free stops
Titles and photos, without the stories: those are what you unlock. Nothing here is a spoiler.
Terragni Family Home and Studio
Giuseppe Terragni grew up in this Via Indipendenza house and later opened an architectural practice on the ground floor with his brother Attilio. Work produced here helped turn Como into a center of Rationalism, while Attilio’s political role tied the studio to Fascist municipal power.
Piazza San Fedele
An intimate medieval square believed to occupy part of Roman Como’s forum. Later used as a grain market, it still keeps the porticoes and projecting timber houses of the old walled city.
Roman Theatre Remains at Via Vitani 13
Excavations inside an ordinary building revealed structural remains interpreted as part of Roman Como’s theatre. Its ancient seating structure was later buried, quarried and absorbed into the medieval city.
Alessandro Volta’s Birthplace (Palazzo Volta)
Alessandro Volta, inventor of the electric battery, was born and died in this ancestral house. A blocked arch in the medieval wall recalls the private passage he was allowed to open for direct access home.
Porta Torre
Como built this formidable gate tower after Milan demolished the city’s Roman defenses. Completed in 1192, it faced the road to Milan like a 40-metre declaration that Como was back in business.
Monument to Alessandro Volta
Pompeo Marchesi’s marble statue turned Alessandro Volta, inventor of the first electrical battery, into Como’s secular civic hero. Its remarkably brief dedication also helped give the entire square Volta’s name.
Piazza Cavour and the Exhibition That Rose Twice
In 1899, a vast temporary exhibition celebrating the battery stretched from Piazza Cavour into Como’s lakeside gardens. A short circuit destroyed it, but the city built a second exhibition in less than two months.
Hotel Metropole-Suisse Façade
Giuseppe Terragni’s first professional commission was a cautious remodeling of an older hotel façade, begun around the time he graduated. While publicly challenging academic architecture with Gruppo 7, he was still quietly negotiating with its classical vocabulary here.
Albergo Terminus
An Art Nouveau hotel opened in 1902 as Como’s working waterfront was becoming a fashionable lakeside resort. Its original role also included a bathing establishment serving the neighboring Palace Hotel.
Gelateria Ceccato
The classic lakefront gelato stop of Como.
Tempio Voltiano
A Neoclassical museum on Lake Como dedicated to local physicist Alessandro Volta, inventor of the first electrical battery. Its collection includes Volta’s original scientific instruments, personal belongings and honours.
Como War Memorial
A hidden gem memorial in the city of Como.
+9 stops
How it works
- Unlock it here or in the app — one payment, no subscription.
- Download it once; the audio and the map work without signal.
- Walk at your own pace, start and stop whenever you want.
Unlock the whole city
Every route and quest in this city, at less than the price of three of them. €19.99
