Il Vicolo, Como Italy

Il Vicolo are a series of apartments in this building. Discrete sign on the wall. The studio apartment is at the balcony level.

The different apartments have a theme colour, the studio apartment's was red.

Price

Good Value for money when you consider it’s an apartment in the centre of Como. Happy with what I paid.

Narrow pedestrian street leading to Duomo where Il Vicolo is located.

Location

Terrific location, right next to the Duomo (Como Cathedral), around the corner from a supermarket, 5 minutes from the lake and the ticket office for the ferries. It was a 10 to 20 minutes (depending on with luggage or without!) from the Como San Giovanni train station, and 2 minutes from the Como Nord station. From Como it’s also possible to take an airport bus to Malpensa airport, check the timetable as the buses aren’t that frequent. (From memory as didn’t take one this time.)

Facilities

I stayed in what was listed as a ‘studio’ it had a full kitchen (side note here with a kettle! Not a standard feature in Italian holiday apartments, or Italian kitchens for that matter, it wasn’t an electric kettle but one on the stove. No microwave though, again as they’re not standard in Italian kitchens.) There were snacks and drinks provided, 2 bottles of orange juice, 2 of water and on the table were a variety of biscuits. (cookies, biscotti)

Kitchen, note kettle on stove!

Had ironing board, iron, TV with satellite channels (had never seen Armenian TV before, or Iranian for that matter!) 800 channels it was too much, couldn’t cope so watched very little! As it was a ‘studio’ the bed was a pull out one from the couch. Comfortable none the less. Free wifi with a good connection. And it had air-conditioning.

Lounge area

Now it's a bedroom!

As it was an apartment, you were left to your own devices as far as cleaning was concerned, although they did come to empty the bins each day.

Very helpful manager who explained how everything worked and also left a folder of tourist information, recommendations on things to do, restaurants, etc in the local area.

It’s not a hotel so you needed to have rung the manager the day before your arrival, or on the day as I did since I didn’t read the instructions until late the night before! He meets you outside at the street entrance to take you inside.

Despite it being an old building, it had an elevator! (Can be rare!)

Large bathroom

I thought this was a nice touch, out in the hallway umbrella stand was an umbrella. A red one to match the decor!

Optional Extras

Old historic building, since I had the studio apartment it came with a small balcony which was nice. The 2 bedroom apartment on the top floor comes with a small rooftop terrace.

Out on the balcony

Loved this apartment and already planning on staying there again!