Lake Como took first place in the Worlds’ ten most beautiful lakes list drawn up by the web magazine The Huffington Post.

Italy is still, as ever, the Bel Paese. The American branch of the online journal The Huffington Post drew up a list of the most beautiful lakes in the world and Lake Como was put in first place.
As well as its sheer beauty and the sense of enchantment it gives us, other factors included the clean water and the quality of the places if offers to stay. Here are the top ten.


10 – Lake Tahoe,  USA. A spectacularly lovely lake in the Sierra Nevada on the border between California and Nevada. It is famous for its crystal clear water and as a ski resort. As a footnote, Lake Tahoe was used for much of the filming of The Godfather - Part II directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

9 – Derwentwater, England. If you love English literature of the early nineteenth century then you must visit this magnificent place. The Lake District in a mountainous region of northwest of England is famous for having inspired the work of the Romantic movement and specifically the lake poets led by Wordsworth and Coleridge. Here they wrote their odes and poems amidst the stunning scenery in which they decided to live.

8 – Lake Titicaca, Bolivia and Peru. The highest navigable lake in the world is 3,812 metres above sea level and has shores in both Bolivia and Peru. Its waters are so clear and the quality of the light so exceptional that it looks very close to the mountains which are in fact 30 km away.

7 – Lake Powell, USA. Here man has rivalled nature by in 1963 creating the beautiful artificial Lake Powell on the Colorado River. It is on the edge of the Arizona desert and is named after John Powell, the explorer who first ventured into the remotest parts of Arizona and Utah.

6 – Lake Lucerne, Switzerland. Also known as the Lake of the Four Cantons, Lake Lucerne lies in the heart of Switzerland. As well as for the beauty of the landscape, it is also a popular tourist destination because of the quality of its hotels and its many fine bathing resorts.

5 – Lake Dove, Australia. Do your remember the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Tunes? The small, lively and combative marsupial lives right here, on the banks of this lake at the foot of the Cradle Mountains, where it can enjoy the pristine purity of a wild and extremely picturesque landscape.

4 – West Lake, China. Temples, pagodas and small green islands are what you will see if you come to this lake in the Hangzhou region. It symbolises of that China which has not been industrialised and is a striking image of the notion of "man immersed in the natural world."

3 – Lake Pichola, India. This is an artificial lake that was created way back in 1362. It is particularly famous for being the chosen place of residence of the Maharaja Udai Singh who built his huge palace here. It is a place a dazzling beauty with its own unique atmosphere.

2 – Lake Maligne, Canada. If you enjoy excursions into unspoiled nature, this lake is for you. There are unique sights to explore, by canoe or on foot, or you can visit the nearby Jasper National Park. The views are splendid and the Maligne Mountains beautifully frame the lake’s limpid waters.

1 – Lake Como, Italy. Villa Olmo, Villa d’Este, Villa Carlotta, Villa Balbianello. Cernobbio, Bellagio, Moltrasio, Lezzeno, Domaso are places that have been familiar to the likes of political leaders such as Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy and film directors and actors of the calibre of Alfred Hitchcock and George Clooney. Its literary praises have been sung by the such names as Manzoni, Byron and Stendhal. It is known locally simply as Lario, the most beautiful lake in the world.