Lierna, Lake Como: A Guide to the Lake’s Swimming Village
Some Lake Como villages announce themselves. Lierna simply waits — a curve of pale beach, a headland of stone houses, water the colour of sea glass — for the travellers who know to look.
On the eastern shore of the Lecco arm, between Mandello del Lario and Varenna, Lierna has quietly become the lake’s swimming village. Milanese families have kept the secret for generations, arriving by train that stops a short walk from the shore. Spend a day here and you understand why they keep coming back.
A brief history
The story begins on the little promontory now called Castello. Its foundations reach back to Roman times, but Lierna earned its place in the chronicles during the Ten Years’ War between Como and Milan. Fortified into a lakeside stronghold, the hamlet held firm, and in August 1127 its defenders won a decisive victory over the troops of Como. For some four centuries afterwards Lierna guarded this stretch of water for the Duchy of Milan.
When the frontier wars faded in the sixteenth century, the castle lost its military purpose and settled into gentler work — fishing and trade along the lake roads. The parish church of Sant’Ambrogio was rebuilt from 1593 and completed in 1626, and the fortified knot on the headland softened into the fishing borgo you can still walk through today.
Where Lierna sits on the lake
Lierna lies on the Lecco arm’s eastern shore, sheltered beneath the great grey wall of the Grigne. Those mountains do more than frame the view: they hold off the weather and give the village a mild, sun-trapped microclimate. Mandello del Lario sits just to the south, Varenna a short hop north, with the town of Lecco anchoring the foot of the arm.
The village is really a scatter of hamlets — Castello on the water, Grumo and Genico climbing the hillside. Getting here is refreshingly simple: Lierna has its own station on the Lecco–Colico line, about an hour from Milan. For hopping between lake towns by water, see our Lake Como ferry guide.
The 5 best things to see in Lierna
1. Riva Bianca beach
The reason most people come. Riva Bianca is a pale crescent of fine pebbles cupping water so clear it turns turquoise in the shallows — genuinely among the loveliest beaches on the whole lake. It shelves gently, has cafés and loungers close at hand, and looks straight across at Bellagio’s headland. On a hot afternoon it is hard to believe this is a lake and not the sea.
2. The Castello di Lierna
Behind the beach, a tiny promontory holds the old fortified borgo. Here the fishermen’s houses lean into one another, divided only by narrow alleys, vaulted passages and hidden courtyards spilling with flowers. Traces of the medieval lakeside walls survive, and at the heart of it stands the little church of Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro, its facade painted with the two saints as warriors. It takes ten minutes to wander and stays with you far longer.
3. Swimming, coves and kayaking
Riva Bianca is the headline, but the whole shoreline invites you in. Smaller coves and rocky inlets on either side reward anyone willing to walk a few minutes for a quieter swim — one of Lake Como’s genuinely under-visited stretches of water, and a fine addition to our hidden gems of the lake. Rent a kayak or paddleboard and the low cliffs, grottoes and moored fishing boats open up at your own pace.
4. The church of Sant’Ambrogio
The village’s parish church, rebuilt at the turn of the seventeenth century, rewards a quiet look inside. Its high altar holds sacred relics, a 1628 canvas of the Madonna of the Rosary hangs by the right door, and the vault carries mid-twentieth-century frescoes tracing the life of Saint Ambrose. It is a calm, unhurried counterpoint to the beach.
5. Walking up toward the Grigne
Lierna is also a doorway to the mountains. The historic Sentiero del Viandante — the old “Wayfarer’s Path” — threads the hillside above town, linking the lake villages and opening long views back over the water. From here, more ambitious trails climb toward the Grigne massif. Our Lake Como hiking guide has routes to match your legs.
Planning your visit
Getting there. Easiest by train: Lierna’s station sits on the Lecco–Colico line, roughly an hour from Milan and minutes from the beach. To arrive by water, plan your route with our ferry guide.
Best for. Swimmers, families, and travellers chasing the lake at its most relaxed and least crowded.
When to go. June to September for warm water; late spring and early autumn for the beach without the peak-season crowds. See the best time to visit Lake Como.
Nearby. Pair Lierna with Mandello del Lario just south, elegant Varenna to the north, and Lecco at the foot of the arm. Basing yourself for a few nights? Our best towns to stay guide can help.
Lierna asks nothing grand of you — no palace queues, no crowds to elbow through. Just clear water, warm stone, and a slow afternoon that feels, quietly, like the lake at its best.