🔷 Is Como Getting Younger?

🔹 This week, Como is giving range.

The Lungolago flooded (again), my favorite classical music festival is open for bookings, a beach is coming back to life, the funicular is preparing to strike, and young people are apparently done waiting for the city to become fun on its own.

Also, someone sent messages to the Moon from Gera Lario.

Subtle week.

Let’s get into it.

-Simona

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If you remember, the Life Quality Index that we covered in December, ranked Como #4 in Italy for older people's quality of life - and #63 for young people's. That gap has been hard to ignore.

But something is shifting lately. And it's being driven by young people who got tired of waiting for someone else to fix it.

Last year, Onda launched Thursday music nights on the lake - and organised free shuttles from surrounding towns to get people there. This year alone: a Youth Festival, a morning club brunch with a DJ set, a boat party, and an upcoming party in the lighthouse. Planet Events and Lario Partners are the names behind most of it. Here are the youth’s voices on the topic.

Hard to tell. However, cities that lose young people tend to follow a predictable pattern - less talent, slower innovation, weaker local economy, which makes it harder to attract the next generation. Como at #63 for young people's quality of life sits uncomfortably close to that risk.

A livelier social scene won't fix that on its own. But cities that did manage to turn things around often point to exactly this kind of energy as where it started. Maybe something, maybe not - but worth paying attention to.

🎻 LacMus Opens. The lake's classical music festival is taking bookings now - and several events are free.

🏖️ Lido Lives. (Login to read) Two young Lecco entrepreneurs are reopening Valbrona's beach as Cala Silva on June 2nd.

🛰️ Moon Mail. (Login to read) Telespazio bounced a radio signal off the Moon from its Lario Uno antenna in Gera Lario - part of the buildout of ESA's lunar comms network. A few student messages went up, too.

🌾 Avena, Approved. Bregnano's Floe — the farm behind the rose syrup in your Spritz del Lago di Como — is picking up the Soroptimist Bollino di Qualità for its organic oat flour on June 7.

🏊 Sport in Riva. Cernobbio's lakefront throws open June 7 for an all-comers sports day: demos, Rotary's Jet Ski Therapy, and the Premio Cernobbio per il Merito Sportivo. 10am–5:30pm.

💼 Erba Holds Steady. (Login to read) Villa Erba's 2025: €22.5M revenue (+66% over three years), €2.4M net profit (+9.5%), 154 events. New CdA in; Claudio Taiana stays at the helm.

🚆 Strike Month. (Login to read) June's calendar: trains nationwide June 11, flights June 13, and the Como–Brunate funicular pauses June 26. Plan accordingly.

🥾 Trail Drop. Como 1907 × Adidas put out a "Hiking Club" capsule inspired by the lake and its mountains.