Living on The Lakes

As if nearly 5,000 miles of sun-kissed coastline wasn’t enough waterside loveliness for one small country, Italy also manages to squeeze in more than 1,500 lakes. Some of them are heart-stoppingly beautiful, with surrounding landscapes that have been made even more gorgeous by the addition of handsome medieval towns and pretty villas. It’s no wonder that Italy’s lakes are some of the most admired and sighed-over locales in Europe.

What’s more surprising is that properties in Italy’s lakelands aren’t ruinously expensive. Sure, the lakes aren’t cheap, but they offer plenty of reasonably-priced properties – especially if you know where to look. What’s more, lakeside homes make a great investment, with properties in these places holding their value extremely well over time. (They’ve done this even during the difficult events of the last dozen years: the global financial crisis, the coronavirus pandemic and Brexit.) Meanwhile, holiday rental prospects are perennially high, and, like Italy’s coastal areas, lake areas tend to be legally safeguarded against overdevelopment – meaning that the appeal of these exceptionally beautiful places is unlikely to wane.

You probably have some familiarity with the dreamily beautiful lakes of Italy’s north (such as Como, Garda and Maggiore), but you might not be so readily familiar with the delightful