Where to watch the sunset on Lake Como (and from a boat)

Lake Como lies at the bottom of a deep valley, between mountains well over a thousand metres high. The sun drops behind the ridge to the west long before it reaches the horizon, so the shore falls into shade while the sky is still bright.

Which shore loses the light first is simple geometry. The villages of the western shore, Cernobbio, Tremezzo, Menaggio, sit right under their own mountains and face east: by evening the sun is already behind them. The eastern shore faces west, across the lake: Torno, Varenna and Bellano watch the sun go down behind the opposite ridge, and keep the light longer. Bellagio, on the point where the three arms meet, has a lakefront that faces west, towards Tremezzo and Cadenabbia.

After sunset the light stays a little longer on the eastern slopes and the peaks of the Grigne, and the sky over the western ridge stays bright for about half an hour.

• Brunate, above Como. The funicular climbs from Piazza De Gasperi in seven minutes to a village 500 metres above the city, with the lake below and, on a clear evening, the Alps beyond. It runs until midnight, so you can stay for the last light and ride down after dark. At San Maurizio, part of Brunate, stands the Faro Voltiano, a lighthouse built in Volta's honour. Funicular times.
• Bellagio. The lakefront faces west, across to Tremezzo and Cadenabbia. At Punta Spartivento, the tip of the promontory past the old town, a park looks up the northern arm towards the Alps; from late spring to late summer the sun goes down to the north-west, behind the mountains of the western shore.
• Varenna. The lakeside walk and the little harbour face west, across to Bellagio and Menaggio: the classic sunset of the eastern shore, with trains to Milan from Varenna's station.
• Castello di Vezio, above Varenna. It usually closes before sunset, except on fine Friday and Saturday evenings in June, July and August, when it stays open, lit, until 22:30, and in the short days of November and December, when the sun sets before its 17:00 closing. Opening times.

Choosing where to stay? Read Bellagio or Varenna.

Sunset in Como in the middle of each month, from the US Naval Observatory's tables; in Bellagio and Varenna it differs by a minute or two:

• January 17:05, February 17:50, March 18:30
• April 20:10, May 20:50, June 21:15
• July 21:10, August 20:30, September 19:35
• October 18:40, November 16:55, December 16:40

Italy puts its clocks forward on the last Sunday of March and back on the last Sunday of October, which moves sunset by an hour overnight. The earliest sunsets, about 16:40, come in the first half of December; the latest, about 21:18, in the last week of June.

These are the times the sun sets on the horizon. Behind the mountains it sets earlier, an hour or more on the western shore. To see the sun itself, be in place an hour and a half early.

From the boat you see all of it at once: the sun behind the western ridge, the light climbing the eastern slopes, the villages lighting up along both shores. Out where the three arms meet, between Bellagio, Varenna and Menaggio, the lake opens in every direction.

You choose the start time, every quarter of an hour from 07:00; every boat is back at its pier by 22:00. Pick a start that keeps you on the lake from about an hour before sunset to half an hour after, and book two hours: in June and July a start at 19:45, in September 18:30, from November to January 15:45, on the Venetian limousine, the only boat available in winter. From Como one of our tours is the 1-hour private sunset boat tour past Villa Erba, Villa d'Este and Gianni Versace's villa, departing 30 to 60 minutes before sunset, from €490.

The speedboat costs from €490 an hour for up to six, the classic wooden boat from €590 for up to five and the Venetian limousine from €780 for up to eleven, with the skipper and fuel included. Add Prosecco on ice or an aperitivo on board; for a proposal, tell us and we prepare the boat. Plan a two-hour sunset tour. If you only need to get across for the evening, a water taxi between Bellagio and Varenna takes 10 min by boat, at the time you book.

Bellagio is about 1 h 30 from Milan by car, so an evening on the lake fits easily around a day in the city. Our driver from Milan to Bellagio costs €210 one way for up to four people; book the return for the time you choose and ride back to Milan after dinner. Or let one booking do it all: the evening from Milan puts together the car from your door, the boat at the hour you choose and the car back.

By train, Como and Varenna have direct trains from Milan: check the last one back before you stay for the sunset.