suec1

We are considering staying at Grand Hotel Imperiale on Lake Como - we will not have a car and I am thinking nearby restaurant options may be limited. In early Oct. will the ferries be running in the evenings? frequently? the hotel is very near a ferry landing so hopefully we could take it to another town for dinner.

Rastaguytoday

My Italian isn't so hot.

Try this to figure out what you want. You need to know where the ferry goes from Moltresio.

http://www.navlaghi.it/eng/d_.html

adrienne

I found that the ferries didn't run after 8:00 and some towns begin to shut down October 1 with no post office and some restaurant closings. The good part is that there were few tourists and the weather was mild.

Jean

The GH Imperiale is a lovely property, but the location (Moltrasio ferry stop) is not great for long days of exploring the lake without a car. The fast ferry barely serves Moltrasio at all, and it's unlikely there would be a slow ferry late enough to allow you to have dinner in another town.

The October/fall ferry schedule won't be posted until much later in the year, but you could get a sense of the frequency of service by looking at the current/spring schedule:

http://www.navigazionelaghi.it/c_dow...ttello_P13.pdf

We've stayed in Bellagio and Varenna several times over many years, and our experience in that part of the lake is that some hotels and restaurants begin closing after the second weekend of October. It seems the GH Imperiale closes at the end of October, and that may be typical for that part of the lake.

neckervd

Don't worry, there are buses about every hour until 8pm.
http://www.sptlinea.it/Portals/5/Doc.../C%2010-20.pdf
A taxi ride from Como city center or Ponte Chiasso wouldn't probably cost more than 15 EUR.
Your hotel has a restaurant. As Moltrasio is close to the town, there will be other open restaurants too, like http://www.trattoriadelfagiano.it/locale.html

All depends on your interests, according to them, Moltrasio may be a good or a bad choice.