Lake Como

Lake Como is where James Bond recovers from a bad day, where Anakin and Padmé marry in secret and where George Clooney bought a villa in 2002. Visitors often treat it as a film set: a ferry to Bellagio, a photo from the water and back to Milan before dinner.

The lake keeps older stories. In 1169 the bishop of Como cursed Isola Comacina, its only island, and anyone who tried to rebuild met an unnatural death – until a ritual of fire began at the island's one restaurant, performed every day since the 1950s. When the winter wind blows, fishermen swear they hear a bell ringing from beneath the Golfo di Venere.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours follow those stories. Walk the Greenway from Ossuccio to Lenno, past the meadow where seven witches are said to have met and the shore where two hunters once fired at the Lariosauro, then give a morning to Como with an art historian, who stops you at the frog on the cathedral door that visitors rub for luck.

Put your earbuds in and take the passeggiata the long way round.