Lario

A view of the "Y" turned
upside down from the sky

Lake Como (Lago di Como in Italian, also known as Lario) is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy.

It has an area of 146 km², making it the third largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore. At 410 metres deep, it is also the deepest lake in Europe.

The lake has a very peculiar shape: a "Y" turned upside down. The northern branch begins at the town of Colico; Como and Lecco sit at the ends of the southwestern and southeastern branches, respectively.

Lake Como is fed in large part by the Adda River, which enters the lake near Colico and leaves it downstream at Lecco. This geological conformation makes the southwestern branch a dead end, and so Como, unlike Lecco, is often flooded.

A note about the lake's name:

• The real Italian name is Lario, but this name is rarely used; it is usually called Lago di Como, literally "Lake of Como"
• In guidebooks the lake can be found as "Lake Como", "Lake of Como", or "Como Lake"
• Google searches show that "Lake Como" is much more common, in English, than "Lake of Como".
• It is important to remark that "Como" is not the name of the lake, even though calling it "Lake Como" seems to imply this. One does not say "Let's go to the Como", if you are going to this lake. Strangely, the opposite is true with Lake Garda: even though Garda is a town on its shore, just like Como is a town on Lake Como's shore, you can say "Let's go to the Garda".