You arrive at Como, the town that gives the lake its name, you walk from the station to the water, and you get directly onto a ferry bound for somewhere prettier. Como is treated as a turnstile. We did roughly this ourselves the first time, and we have been quietly making up for it ever since, because the town at the foot of the lake turns out to have two of the most interesting stories in northern Italy, and hardly anyone stops long enough to hear either of them.

You have read that Bellagio is the one everybody loves and also the one everybody complains about. You have read that Varenna is prettier, or quieter, or possibly both. Menaggio has entered the conversation for reasons you can no longer reconstruct. Where to stay and why?