Como, a walled city of Lombardy, Northern Italy, at the south-west extremity of the Lake of Como, 30 miles N. of Milan by rail. It lies in a valley, surrounded by hills, clad with luxuriant gardens, olive plantations, and orange groves, with here and there an old ruin cropping out. Among the principal buildings of Como are the cathedral (1396-1732), and the marble 13th-century town-hall. The chief articles of manufacture are silk, satin, gloves, and soap. Pop. 38,560. Como, the ancient Comum, was the birthplace of Ca?cilius Statius, the two Plinys, several popes, and the physicist Volta.

The Lake of Como (Ital. Logo di Como, or Il Larip, anc. Larius Lams), a lake of Northern Italy, lying at the foot of the Bernine Alps, and formed by an expansion of the Adda, which enters it at its north, and issues at its southeastern extremity. Its total length is 30 miles; but midway the promontory of Bellaggio divides it into two branches, the shorter of which is called the Lago di Lecco. The greatest breadth is 2 1/2 miles. It is 663 feet above sea-level, has a mean depth of 870, and a maximum of 1352 feet. The beauty of the surrounding scenery and the salubrity of the climate have made the Lake of Como the most resorted to in Italy, its shores being everywhere studded with noble villas. See Lund, Como and the Italian Lakes (1887).