Colorful lakeside village sunset, Varenna, Lake Como, Italy
© Jan Cattaneo/Adobe Stock
A vivid village
Put extra gas in your time machine if you want to get ahead of this lakeshore's tourism boom: The mild microclimate created by Lake Como has drawn posh throngs since ancient times. Imperial Roman bigwigs and Hollywood stars alike have relished the lake's pleasant ambience that reminds of the Mediterranean, even though we're roughly 100 miles from that great sea's ample warm air. Here at the edge of the Alps, warm weather is much more scarce, so properties set along northern Italy's humid subtropical lakes have always been hot items—like these dazzling buildings on the Varenna waterfront.
Lighthouse Sunset Purple Pink Sky Reflection
Lake Matheson, temperate rainforest, snow-capped mountains reflection, West Coast, South Island, New Zealand
Houseboats, Historic Buildings, Canal, Bare Trees, Dusk, Oud-West, Amsterdam
Snowy Illuminated Vladishki Most Stone Arch Bridge, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria
Kinderdijk Windmills, canal reflections, Kinderdijk, Netherlands
Cloughoughter Castle Ruin at Sunset, Lough Oughter, County Cavan, Ireland
Hungarian Parliament Building, Chain Bridge, Danube River, Twilight, Budapest
Okavango River Wetland Sunset, Botswana
