lindaoitaly16

My family will be staying in Milan in July for two nights before flying back to the US. I have two teen girls 13 and 14. I wanted to take them to the Lake area for the day - hoping that they can swim or do water sports. I have searched but can't find much information for doing that.
Any ideas? Any information on good public or private beaches for swimming?
Thank you

NYCFoodSnob

Lake Como is officially polluted. You wouldn't know it by looking at the water, but the Salmonella count is quite high. Certain areas of the lake are safer to swim in because certain towns have sewage plants while others don't. Some areas of the lake are treated, like the public beach in Varenna. I have found it very difficult to find an Italian local, and I know quite a few, who would allow their kids to swim in the lake. Many tourists do not know about its polluted status and swim without caution. It is a shame that local authorities do not warn visitors. Ah, tourism. All is not perfect in Italy.

bobthenavigator

And, it is cold.
Don't bother.

traveller1959

For swimming and water sports, better go to Lake Garda. It is warmer, cleaner and more scenic.

bvlenci

The southern part of the lake, especially near the city of Como, is polluted, but the northern part is not.

Here is the official page for finding the levels of bacteria in bathing waters in Italy.

http://www.portaleacque.salute.gov.i...blico/mappa.do

Enter the name of the town in the box that says "Comune" and you'll see a map. The beach areas are shown in colors in the water that indicate whether bathing is permitted. Green means it's permitted. Red means forbidden because of pollution, purple means forbidden because of algae or cyanobacteria, and gold means forbidden for other reasons. The beaches all have a blue dot on them, and you can click to see the actual levels of bacteria at different points in time, compared to a straight line that shows the limit.

I checked Bellagio and Varenna and their water is judged "excellent". If you enter Como, you'll see that their beach has a red patch.

Because of the landscape, which is mostly cliffs rising straight out of the water, the beaches are few and small. The area is much better for scenery than for swimming.

However, I wouldn't go to Lake Como to swim. The train goes to Varenna, where there is no natural beach, just an artificial platform, and it's not anywhere near the train station. There is a beach near the ferry port in Bellagio, but it's a private beach belonging to a club. The public beach is again not easy to reach. If your daughters want to swim, it would be better to get a hotel with a pool.

I don't know anything about the water sports, although I saw people on jet skis there.