Ferries from Bellagio

Bellagio sits on the tip of the promontory where Lake Como splits into its two southern arms, and that geography decides everything about the ferry. It is the only one of the four car-ferry terminals with a direct link to all three others, and it handles 130 of the 348 departures in the summer traghetto timetable — more than any other landing stage on the lake.

The longest working day on the lake

Monday to Saturday the first boat leaves at 05:40 and the last at 23:40. On Sundays and holidays the day starts nearly an hour and a half later, at 07:05, but finishes later still: there is a 00:10 departure to Cadenabbia after midnight. No other terminal here runs past midnight.

Where the boats actually go

On a weekday Bellagio sends 28 departures to Cadenabbia (ten minutes), 21 to Varenna and 19 to Menaggio (fifteen minutes each). On Sundays the Cadenabbia figure is unchanged at 28, Varenna drops to 20 and Menaggio to 14. The Cadenabbia shuttle is the constant; the cross-lake services are what thin out at the weekend.

A full boat means waiting, not rebooking

There are no reservations on this service and the operator states the limit plainly: places are capped at the vessel’s maximum capacity. With a car in July that matters here more than anywhere else on the lake, because Bellagio is where the traffic from three directions converges. A missed sailing to Cadenabbia costs about twenty minutes; a missed one to Menaggio on a Sunday can cost well over an hour.

The three-way junction is also the change point

Because Bellagio touches every other terminal, some sailings on the printed timetable are not direct at all — a Menaggio to Varenna run may be routed through here, which is why the same pair can be quoted at fifteen minutes or thirty depending on the departure. If a journey time looks double what it should be, the boat is calling at Bellagio on the way.

Summer only, and dated

Everything above comes from the traghetto timetable valid 1 July to 4 October 2026. Outside those dates the pattern changes; the operator issues separate spring, summer and winter documents rather than adjusting one. The passenger boats and the fast service that also call at Bellagio — including the line down to Lecco — run to their own timetables and are not counted in the figures on this page.