I will be in Lake Como in August and trying to decide between Hotel Belvedere in Bellagio, Albergo Firenze in Bellagio and Hotel Du Lac in Varenna. They are all available and all have rooms with similar pricing. (Actually, I was surprised there were rooms available in August since I know so many Europeans vacation during that time period!) Does anyone have opinions on which one to pick?

Also, I'm flying on RyanAir into Milan Bergamo airport. Does anyone have any idea if this airport has public transportation to either Milan's Central train station or buses to Como, like Malpensa has?

Thanks for your help.

I can only respond as to the Belvedere in Bellagio. We stayed there in Oct 99 and enjoyed the hotel. Nice location and service was good.

One tip: The balconies off the rooms on floor 1 (floor 2 in the US) are large and fun to sit outside in the evening. The balconies on the higher floors are smaller. We found staying on floor 1 was great. Had a nice view of the water and was able to enjoy some wine outside in the evening.

Bellagio is such a quintessential Italian town that I don't think you can go wrong with any of your hotel choices. We stayed at the Hotel Florence (Albergo Firenze)and loved it. We had a semi-private very large terrace (separate tables and chairs) with a magnificent view of the lake. Just remembering it makes me want to go back. It was very hot, but we managed with a fan. A good restaurant within walking distance is called La Punta. The hotel will know where it is (away from main part of town).Enjoy the lake.

I think Bellagio is a nice place to visit...some might think its a little contrived...(I personally think Varenna is a lot more "authentic" but that's obviously just one person's opinion) but I think most would say that the town is somehow charming because it is very pleasing to the eye, etc., and offers a lot of fun shopping (I think more so than in Varenna and Menaggio) and lots of restaurants, great lake views (although they aren't any better than some vantage points in both Varenna and Menaggio). We were at the Lake in late May and it was pleasant enough without need for much air conditioning..but it can get humid at times and I appreciated having A/C. How much do you think you really need air conditioning? If that is any sort of issue I'd go for an establishment that has it.
The DuLac in Varenna is a very nice hotel but as I implied above, Varenna isn't as "upscale" as Bellagio if that's an issue. Regardless, I think you'll enjoy that area of the lake.
Unless you want to take a ferry (or an enclosed hydrofoli) all the way up you might be better off going via Centrale and taking the train to Varenna and then the ferry across the lake as necessary. Trains leave about every two hours, the trip takes a little more than an hour. Hydrofoil from Como to Bellagio may very well be faster, though.

Thanks for the replies. Intrepid, I hadn't realized the 2 hotels in Bellagio don't have airconditioning in the rooms...this is something that could be important in August! The Hotel du Lac in Varenna states that they have airconditioning plus I like the idea of being in a smaller, less commercial area so maybe this will be my choice. Thanks again.