Lecco is a town of about 48,000 at the southern end of the eastern arm of Lake Como, and the first thing to establish is which Lake Como this is. The lake forks into an upside-down Y. The western arm holds Bellagio, Varenna, Como itself and the villa gardens, and it takes the overwhelming majority of visitors. The eastern arm, the Lago di Lecco, is narrower, steeper, more industrial and much quieter, and this town sits at the bottom of it with a mountain directly behind.
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That mountain is the Resegone, and its name means big saw, because the ridge is a row of teeth against the sky. Alessandro Manzoni described it in the opening pages of I Promessi Sposi, The Betrothed, which is the foundational novel of modern Italian prose and is set in and around this town. Every Italian schoolchild reads it, which means Lecco occupies a place in Italian cultural life out of all proportion to its tourist profile.
The town itself is pleasant rather than beautiful: a lakefront promenade, a medieval bridge, a basilica, and a good deal of nineteenth and twentieth century industry, because Lecco made silk and then steel and still makes things. It is a real town where people work, which the villa resorts across the water are not.
What it has that they do not is the mountains. The Grigne and the Resegone rise straight out of the lake to over two thousand metres, the walking and climbing are among the best in Lombardy, and Lecco is a genuine mountaineering centre with a long tradition.
What you pack is set by a lake climate at the foot of real mountains, which means humidity below and weather above.
The Lakefront, Manzoni and the Old Town
A promenade, a medieval bridge, and the house from the novel.
The lungolago, the lakefront promenade, is where the town meets the water and it runs for a couple of kilometres with the mountains across the lake and the Resegone behind. It is the best thing in the town and it costs nothing. At its northern end the Ponte Azzone Visconti, a fourteenth century bridge, crosses the Adda where the river leaves the lake.
The Basilica di San Nicolo stands by the water with a very tall nineteenth century campanile, visible from most of the lake, and you can climb it. The Piazza XX Settembre is the main square with the Torre Viscontea, a surviving fragment of the medieval castle, now a small museum.
For Manzoni, the Villa Manzoni on the edge of the centre is the house where he spent his childhood, now a museum covering his life and the novel, with a set of rooms furnished to the period. Several of the places named in the book are identifiable around the town, and the tourist office has a route. This means more if you have read it; if you have not, the villa is still a decent small museum.
The Palazzo delle Paure, an early twentieth century former tax office on the lakefront, holds the Galleria d'Arte Moderna and a mountaineering museum that covers the Lecco climbing tradition, which is the local thread worth following.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Mountains, the Lake and Como
Two serious massifs, a cable car, and the villa side across the water.
The Grigna massif north of the town is the main walking ground: the Grignetta, properly the Grigna Meridionale at 2,184 metres, is a spire-covered limestone peak criss-crossed with routes and is where generations of Italian climbers learned, and the Grignone to the north is higher and gentler. The Piani Resinelli, reached by road, is the usual base and has easy family walks as well as the approaches to the hard routes.
The Resegone itself, at 1,875 metres, is climbed from Lecco or from Versasio, and the Erna cable car from the edge of town lifts you partway up for a view straight down onto the lake. The Rifugio Azzoni sits near the summit.
Be clear about the difficulty: these are not hills. The Grignetta in particular has exposed rock routes, via ferrata and sections where people are killed every year, and even the walking paths are steep with loose limestone. The Lecco mountain rescue service is one of the busiest in the Alps.
On the water, ferries run up the lake from Lecco, though less frequently than on the western arm, and the Varenna crossing connects to the villa side: Villa Monastero's gardens, Bellagio, and Villa Carlotta are all over there and make an easy day. Como city is forty minutes by train round the bottom of the lake.
Closer in, the Adda river path runs south from Lecco along a towpath past the Leonardo-designed locks at Paderno, which is flat cycling, and Bergamo with its walled upper town is an hour away.
Getting around: the lakefront and the centre are flat and walkable, and the town climbs steeply behind. Lecco is on the railway from Milan, about forty minutes, and on the line to Sondrio and the Valtellina, which makes it one of the easiest lake towns to reach without a car. Buses reach the Piani Resinelli and the valleys. The Erna cable car goes from Versasio, a bus ride from the centre.
When to Go
May to June and September to October, with the high paths clear from late June.
The lake moderates the valley and the mountains make their own weather: daytime highs from about 6C in January to 29C in July at lake level, high humidity, substantial rain spread through the year and more of it than Milan. Snow lies on the Grigne from November into May.
Late spring, May and June, is the best for the lower walking and the lakefront, with the slopes green and the lake warming slowly.
July and August are warm and humid at the water and busy with Italian holidaymakers, though a fraction of the western arm's crowds. The high mountain paths are reliably clear and the rifugi open, which is the reason to come then. Afternoon thunderstorms build over the Grigne and arrive quickly.
September and October are excellent: the humidity drops, the high paths stay open into October and the autumn colour on the slopes is good.
Winter is cold, damp and often grey at the lake, with snow above. The town functions normally, the lakefront in winter mist is atmospheric, and the ferries run a reduced service.
Is Lecco Safe for Women Travelers
Lecco is an ordinary working Lombard town and its real risks are on the mountain.
The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in Italy. Its guidance concentrates on petty theft in crowded tourist areas and on the ZTL, the limited traffic zones in historic centres that catch drivers out with automatic fines months after the trip.
The petty theft that dominates Italian travel advice is a big-city problem and Lecco has little of it. What applies is the station, bicycles, which are stolen here as in any northern Italian town, and cars at the mountain trailheads. A theft needs an in-person report, the denuncia, for the document an insurer wants.
Day to day this is comfortable and unremarkable. The lungolago and the centre are busy in the early evening for the passeggiata and then settle, eating alone is unremarkable, and the town is lit and compact. English is less widely spoken than on the villa side of the lake, because far fewer visitors come here, so some Italian helps.
Italy is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as an Italian resident. That means the same ticket, the co-payment Italians make, rather than nothing, and it does not cover repatriation, so travel insurance sits on top of it. Italian public hospitals are good and the emergency department, the pronto soccorso, treats anyone who arrives. Pharmacies, farmacie, are marked with a green cross, are staffed by pharmacists who can advise and dispense for minor problems, and post a rota for nights and Sundays on the door. Tap water is drinkable across the country, including from the public fountains that are common in Italian towns.
The mountains above the town are where the genuine danger is and it should not be softened. The Grignetta is a limestone peak of spires and gullies with exposed rock routes and via ferrata, people die on it every year, and even the marked walking paths are steep with loose stone and real drops. Weather changes fast and afternoon thunderstorms are common in summer, which on exposed rock or a steel cable is the worst place to be. Snow lingers into June on north faces. If you are going up, tell someone your route, check the mountain forecast rather than the town one, and turn back rather than pushing on. Mountain rescue is 112, it is busy and professional, and it is CHARGEABLE: rescue and helicopter costs are not covered by a GHIC or EHIC, so insurance that names mountain activities matters here. On the water, the lake is deep, cold below the surface and gets rough quickly when wind funnels down the arm.
The Lecco Packing List
Boots if you go up, which is why most people come
Waterproof hiking boots with ankle support. The Grigne and the Resegone are loose limestone on steep ground with long descents, and trail shoes are not enough for them. If you are staying by the lake, ordinary walking shoes are fine for the town. Merino wool socks, which keep working damp and handle long descents without blistering.
Base layers, for a humid lake and a cold summit
You can start on a humid 29C lakefront and be at 1,900 metres in wind three hours later, which is the swing to dress for. Merino at 160gsm keeps insulating when damp with sweat, which is the state you reach a ridge in, and does not chill you when you stop at a rifugio. Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron with no synthetic blend. A long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the most useful thing in your pack here.
A real waterproof shell
A packable rain jacket for women with a hood, in your pack on every ascent regardless of the forecast. Lecco gets more rain than Milan and the Grigne build thunderstorms fast in summer.
A warm mid layer, most of the year
A fleece mid layer. The summits are ten degrees or more below the lake, the rifugi terraces are cold, and a winter lakefront in mist is damp cold.
Sun protection, stronger at altitude
A wide brim sun hat, sunscreen and sunglasses. UV rises with altitude, pale limestone reflects it back, and a cool windy day at two thousand metres will burn you.
Water, and more than in town
An insulated water bottle. Rifugi sell drinks but the gaps are long, and the limestone has no surface water to speak of.
The small things
Cash in euros for rifugi, several of which take no cards. An Italian two-pin adapter. Insurance that names mountain activities and helicopter rescue, which is the one piece of admin that matters here. A mountain forecast rather than the town one. And a copy of The Betrothed if you are the sort of person who likes reading a novel where it is set.
Essential Resources for Women in Lecco
Emergency numbers: 112 for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone including a locked mobile, with operators who will find an English speaker. It is the single number across the whole European Union.
Non-emergency police: dial 112 for any emergency, which in Italy reaches police, ambulance and mountain rescue, and 113 for the Polizia di Stato. A theft needs an in-person report, the denuncia, to produce the document an insurer requires. English is less widely spoken here than on the western arm of the lake.
Main hospital or clinic: the Ospedale Alessandro Manzoni in Lecco has a full emergency department and considerable experience of mountain trauma, which follows from what is above the town. Dial 112 for an ambulance or mountain rescue. A farmacia, marked with a green cross, posts the duty rota.
Official health authority: the Ministero della Salute, the Italian health ministry. Italy is in the EU, so a UK GHIC or EU EHIC gives you state-provided care on the same terms as an Italian resident, which means the same co-payment rather than nothing. IT DOES NOT COVER MOUNTAIN RESCUE OR HELICOPTER EVACUATION, which are chargeable here and expensive, so insurance naming mountain activities matters if you intend the Grigne
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Rome. Rome, with a consulate general in Milan forty minutes away by train, which is the relevant one for Lombardy
Official tourism authority: ENIT, the Italian national tourist board. With the Lecco tourist office for the Erna cable car times, the rifugio opening dates on the Grigne and the Manzoni literary route around the town
The Grignetta: a limestone peak of spires and gullies with exposed routes and via ferrata where people die every year, and marked walking paths that are steep with loose stone and real drops. Not a hill.
Mountain rescue is 112 and chargeable: not covered by a GHIC or EHIC.
Which Lake Como this is: the eastern arm, quieter and more industrial than the villa side, with the walking the western arm does not have. Varenna and Bellagio are a ferry away if you want both.
US State Department travel advisory: the Italy advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/italy, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Solo women safety assessment: Lecco is an ordinary working Lombard town and comfortable to travel alone: the lungolago and the centre are busy in the early evening for the passeggiata and then settle, eating alone is unremarkable, and the town is compact and lit. The petty theft that dominates Italian travel advice is a big-city matter and there is little of it here; what applies is the station, bicycle theft as in any northern Italian town, and cars at the mountain trailheads, with a theft needing the in-person denuncia an insurer requires. English is less widely spoken than across the lake on the villa side, simply because far fewer visitors come here, so some Italian helps. The genuine danger is above the town rather than in it. The Grignetta is a limestone peak of spires and gullies carrying exposed rock routes and via ferrata, people are killed on it every year, and even the marked paths are steep with loose stone and real drops; weather turns fast, summer afternoon thunderstorms are common and are at their most dangerous on exposed rock or a steel cable, and snow sits on north faces into June. Tell someone your route, use the mountain forecast rather than the town one, and turn back rather than push on. Mountain rescue is 112, it is one of the busiest services in the Alps, and it is chargeable, since neither a GHIC nor an EHIC covers rescue or helicopter evacuation. On the water, the lake is deep, cold below the surface and quick to roughen when wind funnels down the arm.
Reading On
For the country-level picture, start with the Italy travel guide for women. For why fine wool is the right layer when you sweat up a ridge and then stop at altitude, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
