Cernobbio From Como: The Boat, the Villas and What Is Open

Fare and piers

Como boats leave from the Piazza Cavour piers, piers 1 to 5 along the lakefront. Cernobbio is band 1, so an ordinary one way costs $3.46 (€3) and a return is double, $6.92 (€6). Children aged 4 to 11 pay $2.08 (€1.80) one way and children under 4 travel free if not occupying a seat. The fast boat service costs a supplement of €1.50 on top in band 1, with no reductions on the supplement. If you want a whole day of hops, the band 1 day pass costs $9.23 (€8) for adults and allows stopovers between the piers it was issued for.

Tavernola, the stop between Como and Cernobbio, is in the urban band U at €1.50 one way, if you break the trip there.

The boat lands at the Cernobbio landing stage on Piazza Risorgimento, the lakefront square, which puts you steps from the lido and the start of the town.

• Single and return tickets are valid only on the day shown
• The day pass allows intermediate stops
• Rapido tickets and supplements are valid only on the day of issue and allow no intermediate stops
• Bicycles are not allowed on fast boats, on ordinary boats they are subject to vessel and traffic

Timetables

The frequency and departure times of the Como to Cernobbio boats were not read reliably in the current timetable, so they are not printed here. Check the day's timetable on the Como ferry page or on the Navigazione Lago di Como site before you set out. Places are limited to the maximum capacity of the boat.

ASF lake bus

ASF lists extra-urban lake lines from Como toward Argegno, including C110 Como-Argegno-Menaggio-Colico, C120 Como-Argegno-Lanzo, C125 Como-Argegno via Lago and C126 Como-Campione d'Italia, and per ASF's line announcement these western-shore lake lines run through Cernobbio. The exact stop and fare per line were not read in ASF's material. Check the ASF PDF on our getting around Como page before relying on it.

Walking from Como

italia.it says you reach Cernobbio by walking along the lake from Villa Olmo, whose park sits at the end of the Lino Gelpi promenade. No official page publishes a distance, route or walking time for the continuation to Cernobbio, so none is given here. What the walk offers is documented: the villa parks of the western shore, including Villa del Grumello and Villa Sucota, are linked by the Chilometro della Conoscenza, a pedestrian path over the road toward Cernobbio covering 17 hectares of historic parks in total.

Our own Como to Cernobbio walk page describes the route, and Borgo Vico covers the first stretch out of the centre.

History

In 1568 the architect Pellegrino Pellegrini, known as Il Tibaldi, designed the villa as a summer residence for Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio, Bishop of Como, who named it Villa Garovo after a nearby stream. The Gallio family kept it for nearly two centuries. In 1815 Caroline of Brunswick, Princess of Wales, bought it and renamed it New Villa d'Este.

In 1873 Milanese entrepreneurs turned it into a luxury hotel. The villa and its ten-hectare park were designated a National Monument in 1913, and in 1966 the Sporting Club added the floating swimming pool, the first on Lake Como.

Access today

Villa d'Este is a working hotel. Its own site publishes no page stating that non-guests may walk the gardens, and no public visiting day was found, so do not plan a garden visit and do not promise one to travel companions. The garden is listed in the Grandi Giardini Italiani network, but our reading found no general opening.

What you can do instead is see the facade and the lakefront lawns from the water, on the public ferry or on the Lake Como small-group boat tour, which passes Villa d'Este with commentary. Our Villa d'Este page keeps the full history and access picture up to date.

Villa Erba

In 1897 Luigi Erba, brother of a Lombard pharmaceutical industrialist, commissioned the lakeside residence on the site of a fifteenth century Cluniac Benedictine monastery. It is a square building with arcades on four facades, a tower and a wide staircase down to the lake. In 1922 it passed to his daughter Carla, wife of Duke Giuseppe Visconti di Modrone and mother of the film director Luchino Visconti, who spent part of his childhood there.

The German army requisitioned it during the Second World War. Today it is a venue for trade fairs, conferences and concerts, and the modern exhibition halls by Mario Bellini reinterpret the eighteenth century greenhouses. You find it just outside Cernobbio at Largo Luchino Visconti, on the Strada Regina from Como.

The villa's own site frames the property only as an event venue and states no general tourist opening, so check what is on before you go. More on our Villa Erba page.

Villa Bernasconi

Villa Bernasconi is a detached villa with an Art Nouveau turret, now a house-museum about the textile entrepreneur Davide Bernasconi, described by italia.it as multi-sensory and interactive. Opening hours were not stated in the material read, so check locally or through the Comune before planning a visit.

Every September the Ambrosetti Forum, the economic gathering organised by The European House Ambrosetti, is held at Villa d'Este. During the Forum, Cernobbio undergoes several days of traffic restrictions and cancelled parking around Via Regina, the lake road, per local press. If your trip falls in September, arrive by boat rather than by car.

Three more practical notes. First, the Lido di Cernobbio on Piazza Risorgimento 5 is a private pool and solarium club, with sunbeds, umbrellas, a restaurant and classes, not a municipal beach, and no entry price was published in the material read, so check with the operator on site. Second, no tourist office or infopoint in Cernobbio was found on the Comune site in our reading, so sort information in Como before you leave, at the Broletto infopoint in Via Pretorio or the San Giovanni station info point. Third, Villa d'Este aside, the town's pleasures are simple, the lakefront square, the pier and the walk in either direction.

Three restaurants in Cernobbio appear in the MICHELIN Guide 2026. Materia, at Via Trieste 1/B, holds One MICHELIN Star 2026 in the Creative category. Casa Perrotta Restaurant, on Via Cinque Giornate, is selected in the guide, Italian Contemporary.

La Piazzetta Lake Como, at Via Regina 34, is also selected, Mediterranean. For the wider picture across the city, see where to eat in Como.

Three plans for a Cernobbio visit, from the shortest to the fullest, built on the boat fares above and what is open to visitors. Times are our estimates.