Walking the Greenway del Lago di Como when you sleep on the trail
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Almost every guide describes the Greenway del Lago di Como the same way: leave the car at Colonno, walk the eleven kilometres to Cadenabbia di Griante, then take the ferry or the bus back. That works, but it assumes you are arriving from somewhere else and that the whole day has to be built around the return leg.
If you are sleeping on the trail itself, it works differently, and this is the part you will not read elsewhere. The route passes twenty-two metres from our apartments. That is not a figure of speech: you walk out of the gate, cross, and you are on it.
What changes when you start from the middle
Starting halfway along means two directions instead of one, and neither of them forces you to plan a way back. You walk as far as you feel like, turn around, or drop down to the lakeside road, and the day stays open until the last moment.
In practice the eleven kilometres become two half days, which is also the right pace for a path like this. Southwards you come down into Lenno, thirteen minutes away on foot, and the trail carries on through Ossuccio, Sala Comacina and Colonno. Northwards it climbs gently to Tremezzo, thirty-six minutes on foot, with Griante and Cadenabbia beyond.
Not flat, but not a climb either
The route moves between 190 and 281 metres above sea level. Those are modest numbers, but modest is not the same as flat: it is a constant rise and fall between villages, over cobbles, mule tracks and the odd stretch of tarmac, with the height spread along the whole walk rather than gathered into one ascent.
One warning we always give in person, and it belongs here too: the descent from Via Pola down to Lenno is steep. It is perfectly manageable, but worth knowing in advance, especially with a pushchair or unforgiving knees. There is more on this in our piece on getting around here without a car.
The advantage you only notice on day two
The real difference is not the convenience of the first morning, it is that the trail stays there. A one-off crossing gets done once and filed away; having the path below the house means heading out early while the light is low and nobody is about, coming back for lunch, and walking the same stretch again three days later in different weather.
It is the same reasoning behind what we tell guests who ask how many days they need here: a lot of what this shore offers is not seen, it is repeated. The Greenway is the clearest example.
When to walk it
The path is open all year and has no seasonal closures, but it changes character completely. Spring takes you through olive terraces and gardens in flower; in autumn the woods turn and the light lengthens; in high summer it is worth setting off early and saving the middle of the day for the water.
After rain the cobbles and stone sections get slippery. It is not a safety problem on the lower route, but smooth soles will let you know. If you want real height instead, the paths above Mezzegra are a different proposition, with proper altitude and ascent.
In short
- Eleven kilometres in total, Colonno to Cadenabbia di Griante
- The trail passes twenty-two metres from the apartments
- South: Lenno thirteen minutes on foot, then Ossuccio, Sala Comacina and Colonno
- North: Tremezzo thirty-six minutes on foot, then Griante and Cadenabbia
- Between 190 and 281 metres, with the height spread out and a cobbled surface
- The descent from Via Pola into Lenno is the steepest section
If you are still choosing where to base yourself, sitting on the trail is one of the arguments we make on our page about why this stretch of shore.
