I stayed here for 3 nights in the summer of 2002. My travelmate and I were trying to shake off a bad experience in Milan, and we had a preternatural belief that Lake Como was the perfect place. I don't recall how we found the listing, nor can I find a website for it, but I cannot say enough about this place. Describing it to people always leaves me sheepish because it inevitably sounds like I'm recounting an awesome dream.
This place is part hostel, part music venue, part restaurant. part beach club, and part bar. Yes, I'm serious. My best friend and I would sleep in entirely comfortable, simple accommodations upstairs, and then upon waking, we'd spend the day jumping on the trampoline, floating in the lake, eating pizza [they had a pizza oven, of course], and sipping inexpensive cocktails. It happened that our stay coincided with the World Cup, so my soccer-fanatic travelmate could sit and watch the games on the big screen in the bar/music venue/restaurant. Honestly, that's how we spent 3 days.
The hostel accommodations were entirely no-frills, but they were clean, comfortable, safe, and reasonably priced. (We slept with the windows open to capture the wonderful breeze off the lake, and one more we woke up to find a little lizard taking a snooze on an empty beer bottle that we'd left on the floor the night before. We named her Liz. I told the manager about the lizard and he seemed really embarrassed. Unduly so-- it just added to the charm of the place. And I'm not a nature girl!) The staff was unbelievably warm and friendly, and they encouraged us to relax and just have fun. There was a sense of "nothing must, anything can", and "il dolce di far niente"-- quite a departure from Milan and Rome.
If I find myself back in Como, and I can't score a room in George Clooney's villa, I plan on staying at La Vespa again, even if my youth hostel days are long gone. Haters gonna hate, but there's something ecstatic about jumping on a trampoline with Lake Como and the Alps as a backdrop, waiting for your pizza to be baked. read more