Isola Comacina is preparing for a new phase that could bring its restaurant and bar back into service in 2027.
Attention has concentrated on one figure. The public tender carries an estimated value of approximately €87.9 million and could hand a private operator a concession lasting up to 25 years, and recent descriptions have made that sound like the sale, the privatisation or the commercial capture of the only island on Lake Como.
The official documents describe something far narrower.
Comacina is not for sale. Its archaeological areas, its cultural programme and its institutional management stay with Fondazione Isola Comacina. What goes out to tender is the economic operation of the restaurant, the bar known as La Botte and the visitor services attached to them.
The €87.9 million figure is not an investment or a sale price
Start with the money, because almost every misreading begins there.
The municipality states that approximately €87.9 million is the estimated total revenue a concessionaire could generate across the full concession period, which may run to around 25 years. It is an accounting value used to size a public concession.
It is not the purchase price of the island. Nor is it a subsidy, an opening investment or a lump sum moving between the operator and the town hall.
Some hospitality coverage read the amount as the money required to do the work. The official clarification puts the public-interest works at approximately €3 million, on top of an annual concession fee and continuing maintenance obligations.
That distinction changes the commercial reading completely. A concession valued through 25 years of projected turnover has nothing in common with a developer spending almost €88 million on a small island in the middle of Lake Como.
What the private operator has to repair before it serves lunch
The concessionaire gets the right to run the restaurant and the bar in exchange for work that goes well past dining rooms and kitchens.
Sewerage and water systems. Electrical infrastructure, waste management, public toilets, paths, archaeological areas, the Artists’ Houses, landing points, visitor accessibility. Signage, digital visitor information and measures tied to energy efficiency and renewable sources sit in the same list.
No new private buildings, no extensions, no increase in volume. The stated objective is to recover what already stands and repair the island’s essential infrastructure, not to build a resort on it.
Credibility lives in that clause. A restaurant cannot operate responsibly on an island whose water, waste, electricity, toilets and landing facilities are inadequate, and the dining proposition therefore rests on infrastructure no guest will ever photograph.
The restaurant will not be the island’s only purpose
Comacina is an archaeological and natural park before it is anywhere to eat.
The island carried real political, religious and military weight in the Roman and early medieval periods, was devastated in 1169, and later became the site of serious archaeological investigation. Its three rationalist Artists’ Houses, designed by Pietro Lingeri in the 1930s, still define its cultural identity.
Fondazione Isola Comacina keeps control of the artistic, archaeological and institutional programme. Among its participants: the Accademia di Brera, local public bodies, Belgian institutions and Italy’s heritage authorities.
So the concessionaire will work inside a public cultural asset. Nobody is handing over a private hospitality compound.
That boundary is worth defending. A restaurant can support the visitor experience and help pay for maintenance, but it must not push aside the archaeology, the artist residencies and the public access that justify keeping the island in public hands at all.
Two levels of hospitality are planned
Nothing in the tender points to a single expensive restaurant as the only place to eat or drink.
Two complementary services are called for. La Botte covers the accessible bar format, while the principal restaurant is expected to build a more ambitious menu around Lake Como’s culinary traditions, local products and a higher level of service.
Evaluation criteria reward varied prices, conditions for residents, provisions for visiting artists and offers aimed at ordinary day visitors. Technical and qualitative elements carry 80 points out of 100. The economic offer carries 20.
That weighting is the most encouraging detail in the whole file. Someone crossing to see the archaeological park needs to be able to buy water, a coffee or a plate of something without committing to a full Locanda lunch.
The more ambitious restaurant has the chance to recover the destination status the island held for decades. Its identity will depend on the operator, the chef and the final menu, and none of the three has been confirmed.
What a visitor finds there today
Comacina is open even with the hospitality closed.
Official information lists daily access from 10am to 6pm through the end of October, with an entrance ticket required for the archaeological and natural park. Restaurant, bar and public toilets are unavailable.
You reach it on the public Lake Como boat services or by private taxi boat. The proposed works include a better landing point and the possibility of strengthening public transport access.
Watch that transport line closely. An island reachable only by expensive private launch stops being a public asset in practice, whatever the deed says, and a credible concession has to work for hotel guests, residents, independent visitors and cultural travellers using the public navigation network alike.
A 2027 reopening is an objective, not a reservation date
The mayor of Tremezzina has publicly voiced the hope of reopening the restaurant in 2027, and recent Italian hospitality reporting treats that year as the target for finishing the infrastructure and bringing the Locanda and the bar back into operation.
Several stages sit between here and there. The concession has to be awarded, technical plans approved, works scheduled, the hospitality operation defined.
No official announcement currently confirms:
- the winning concessionaire;
- the chef or restaurant management team;
- the final menu and price structure;
- the precise start of construction;
- the month in which the restaurant will reopen;
- whether all visitor services return at the same time.
The name Locanda dell’Isola Comacina also carries a complicated recent history, involving the previous management and years of closure. Judge the new concession on its final legal and operational structure, not on unconfirmed reports about who is bidding.
What the reopening could change for Lake Como
A working Comacina would give the central lake a destination built on archaeology, boat access and dining, without another large hotel or another waterfront development.
The proposed calendar reaches past July and August. The tender encourages daily opening from April through October and weekend operation in March, November and December, subject to the final agreement with the foundation.
A longer season is what makes the island useful to guests staying around Tremezzina, Lenno, Bellagio and the western shore in spring and autumn.
Anyone planning a stay can pair Luxury.it’s guide to luxury hotels on Lake Como with the official island and navigation schedules. Treat Comacina as a half-day cultural excursion for now, and add lunch when the Locanda has genuinely reopened.
Luxury.it perspective
The best part of this project is not the prospect of another difficult reservation.
It is the chance to use a commercially viable hospitality operation to repair public infrastructure, extend the island’s season and restore an important Lake Como address without selling it or building over it.
The €87.9 million headline hides that smaller and more interesting story. The number is projected turnover. The real project is a demanding balance between archaeology, public access, local hospitality and long-term maintenance, and it will be judged on plumbing as much as on cooking.
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The Best Hotels in Lake Como · The Best Restaurants in Bellagio and Varenna · Villa d’Este’s Miralago
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