Careno in Nesso

Nesso is a small village built on the lush and steep banks of Lake Como in the Lombardy region of Italy. It is about halfway between the towns of Como and Bellagio.

The word Nesso is also the Italian name for Nessus, the centaur who was the ferryman on the river Euenos.

Get in

By bus

The C30 Bus line (the blue Como-Nesso-Bellagio line) regularly serves Nesso. It comes through about once an hour in each direction and has three stops in the town. The bus schedule can be found on the bus website in pdf form.

By boat

The ferry and boat service on Lake Como does stop at Nesso. However, because the town is so small, only the slower ferries with many other stops provide service to Nesso. The boat schedule can be found on the Navigazione website.

See

• Ponte Roma (The Roman Bridge). It is a bit of a hike down to it from the road (around 300 steps). However, when standing on the bridge, one is rewarded by an excellent view of the waterfalls up above and the lake stretching out below. 
• 1 The Castle (ruins). Looks cool. Can be fun to walk to. However, it is closed to the public.  

Buy

It is quite common for stores and the like to close after lunch and then re-open around 3 or 4. Many stores are also closed on Wednesday and Saturday afternoon as well as all of Sunday.

There are two grocery stores in Nesso and they both follow this practice. One of the stores is on the street level (at the first bus stop in town - coming from Como) near the waterfall/roman bridge. The other store is down the steps to the north (towards Bellagio) near the church.

Eat

• Tre Rose (Three Roses) (near Nesso's second bus stop). €6-15. 

Stay safe

Orrido of Nesso

Walking

Like many of the roads around the lake, the roads in Nesso are very narrow and frequented by full sized buses and apparently suicidal motorcyclists. Try not to walk on the road whenever possible. The beautiful cobbled walking paths either below or above the road provide an excellent alternative.

Swimming

The water by Nesso certainly looks cleaner than the water near Como. However, one should exercise some caution when swimming in it as water quality reports have shown the waters of Lake Como to have many times the accepted level of colony-forming bacteria. It is thought that this is from incomplete waste treatment.