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Domaso lies close to the northern end of the Lake, just above Gravedona. Any description of Domaso has to begin with a phenomenon called the ‘Breva’. It’s a constant breeze that blows across that end of the Lake, making Domaso a perfect location for a wide range of water-sports.

Along the lakefront there are three or four related sites for serious water-sports. As I could only find information in German, the rest of this paragraph is based on photographs and rough free translations, and stands to be corrected.

One site is the Windsurfer Centre Domaso (WSCD), which specialises in renting out the latest windsurfing equipment as well as mountain bikes and canoes. The second is the Windsurf – Schulungscenter (the windsurfer training school), where visitors can select from a number of training options to learn or improve their windsurfing. And the third is the ‘Kat und Boardliegeplatze’, which means berths for catamarans and surfboards. It’s possible to learn to sail a catamaran here on a one week course. The literature also refers to a waterski school further along the ‘shoreline’.

WSCD is well organised for its visitors, with a guest car park and links to the nearby Hotel Europa, the ‘Residence Geranio’ apartments and the ‘Bungalows Camping Paradiso’, as well as the Hotel Regina in Gravedona.

A more leisurely activity is motor boat hire. At Comolakeboats.it, situated on the Via Antica Regina about 300 metres from the centre of town, an ‘inflatable’ will cost you 45 Euros for one hour. Forty horse power boats cost from 75 Euros per hour, 90 Euros for two hours and rise to 140 Euros for six hours. You have to be eighteen to hire one of those but you don’t need a License, unless you decide you want to hire a 115 horse power Gran Turismo motorboat. Boats can carry 5 – 8 passengers, and ‘full body damage insurance’ is included in the price – but that’s almost certainly the ‘body’ of the boat, not the passengers. Fuel is not included in the price.

But Comolakeboats doesn’t just hire motorboats. It also hires out a J80 fast sail boat, with skipper (190 Euros for three hours: 290 Euros for five hours) and waterskiing and wakeboarding gear with an instructor (50 – 55 Euros for half an hour: 98 to 110 Euros for one hour).

Finally, Blue Easy Rent, located in the Sporting Club Domaso on Via Case Sparse, cleverly offers boat hire in three categories – safe (unsinkable), comfortable (with a sun shade) and easy (‘to drive and handle’). Prices range from 75 Euros for one hour to 185 Euros for eight hours, fuel extra. Its brochure also offers: ‘Private camping site, sunbathing area, dressing rooms…bar and lounge inside the club house, large parking site and free beaches only 50 metres far’.

Sorry if that was heavy going for some readers, but that’s the reality for many visitors to the northern end of the lake. And why not?

Anyway; hungry from all that maritime endeavour? There is no shortage of places to eat out in Domaso, with restaurants falling into one of two categories – those specialising in fish from the Lake and other local dishes; and pizzerias. Regional specialities include ‘misoltini’ (dried, grilled fish), gnocchi and polenta served in various ways. There is also a local Domaso white wine, of which only about 1,200 bottles are produced each year. Few of them, one suspects, will be drunk in the town’s ‘public houses’, such as the colourfully named ‘Pub Crazy James’ and ‘Blue Dog Pub’.

Sightseeing in Domaso focuses on the Villa Camilla, which now serves as the town hall and the church of San Bartolomeo. Probably the least impressive of the buildings is the tourist information office, a wooden hut – but full of local brochures. It can be found on the lakeside, off the Via G. Garibaldi, just before it crosses the river.

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