Ferries from Varenna

Varenna is the only one of the four car-ferry terminals on the eastern shore of Lake Como. Everything else in this crossing — Cadenabbia, Menaggio, Bellagio — is west or on the promontory between the arms, which makes Varenna the point where the ferry stops being a local shuttle and becomes the way across.

86 departures, very unevenly shared

Weekdays: 23 to Bellagio, 18 to Menaggio, and just 5 to Cadenabbia. Sundays: 19, 16 and 5. That Cadenabbia figure does not move between the two timetables — five boats a day, every day, on a thirty-minute crossing. It is the thinnest link on the lake and the easiest one to miss by an hour.

On Sundays there is no quick way to Menaggio

This is the sharpest weekday-to-weekend difference anywhere on the crossing. Monday to Saturday, Varenna to Menaggio is timetabled at fifteen minutes. On Sundays and public holidays every single one of the sixteen departures is timetabled at thirty, because the direct run is not offered and the boat routes the long way. Same two piers, same lake, double the time, purely because of the day.

Late boats, late start

The last departure is 23:20 on both weekdays and Sundays — among the latest on the lake. The first is 06:40 on weekdays but 07:55 on Sundays. So the Sunday service is compressed at the front, not the back.

Wheelchair boarding is the captain’s call

The operator states that boarding passengers in wheelchairs may be limited or refused by the master of the vessel for safety reasons, and that ships in service can be substituted at short notice with vessels whose access arrangements differ. Certain runs are flagged as recommended for wheelchair users. Anyone relying on step-free access is asked to check conditions in advance on 031-579211 or the freephone line 800-551801.

Scope of these counts

All of the above is the vehicle ferry on the 1 July to 4 October 2026 timetable. Varenna is also served by passenger boats and by the Como–Colico fast service, which keep separate schedules and are not part of the 86 departures counted here.