---
node: spot_lake_como_brunate
type: spot
slug: brunate
destination: dest_lake_como
title: "Brunate"
lead: "Brunate is the village on the ridge above Como, reached in seven minutes by a funicular that has run since 1894. From 715 metres the whole southern arm of the lake lies below, with the Alps behind it on a clear day."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_lake_como_brunate.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Como%E2%80%93Brunate_funicular_October_2012_05.jpg"
image_author: "Chris j wood"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 3.0"
---

## Overview

It filled with Liberty-style villas at the turn of the twentieth century, when Milanese industrialists built summer houses up here for the air, and several survive along the ridge road. The Volta lighthouse, a beacon built in 1927 for the centenary of Alessandro Volta's death, stands half an hour's walk further and can be climbed. Paths continue along the ridge for hours, and the village is the trailhead for most of them.

## Highlights

Ride up in the late afternoon and walk to the lighthouse for the light on the lake, then take the last funicular down. The queue for the funicular is longest between eleven and two, and the ticket office sells returns which do not save the wait. In winter the village is often above the fog that fills the lake basin.