La Costa: The Voice of Como Tradition

When you step into Trattoria La Costa in Albate you are not simply walking into a restaurant. You are entering a piece of Como history. Betta who runs the place with her husband Ivan with help from their sons Mattia and Manuel tells the story with the pride of someone safeguarding three generations of life on the lake.

“La Costa was born at the start of the 1900s thanks to the Nessi family” she explains. “Here in what was once the old outskirts of Como there was a lot of hard work and people needed someone to feed them. Our trattoria began like that from real needs from real people.”

The trattoria has crossed the whole twentieth century without ever losing its soul. The major renewal came in 1997 when the management passed to Pierluigi Genazzini, a hugely well known name in Como hospitality and to Giuliana Della Valle and today to Ivan and Betta.

“We wanted to refresh it without touching what makes it special. You can still breathe in the whole tradition of Lombard cooking here. A family atmosphere and that sense of welcome that belongs to the real trattorie of the past.”

A glance at the walls is enough to understand that La Costa is much more than a restaurant. It is almost a small museum dedicated to Como 1907.

“Our family has supported Como for three generations,” Betta says. “We have memorabilia from the 1960s, the 1980s, the 2000s and today. Ivan even saw Maradona twice at the stadium with the two penalties he scored even if they were generous. Historic shirts, pennants, scarves , photographs. For us they are pieces of life. Today we keep the tradition alive. We are always in the curva supporting our colours.”

The BiancoBlu passion runs through the room and mixes with the aroma from the kitchen with the warm wood on the walls with the voices of the customers with a cuisine that speaks the dialect of the area.

The menu changes with the seasons. “Lake Como gives us so much. Fish cheeses meat vegetables. Ours is home cooking authentic made as it was once made” Betta says.

“Among the signature dishes there are grain soups homemade gnocchi the famous pennette La Costa spicy with two types of cheese tomato oregano and a secret recipe handed down from my grandmother then mixed boiled meats game braised dishes goulash ossobuco elephant ears with polenta taragna that goes with everything just like in the past.”

There is no shortage of the great fish classics from Lake Como such as rice with perch fillet, golden lavarello and carpione.

“We also like to offer themed evenings with dishes you can hardly find anymore. Tripe Misstultít polenta uncia. These are flavours that tell who we are.”

Finishing the meal is a ritual.

“Do not make me choose the best one. There are tart apple cakes and our torta povera strudel crème caramel. Everything is made by us just like it used to be.”

The restaurant also has an extensive wine cellar curated with passion by Ivan, a professional sommelier.

“We have more than one hundred labels carefully selected from local producers to small treasures from every region” Ivan explains. “Of course we give a lot of space to wines from Valtellina. And if you want you can also purchase bottles with personalised gift packaging.”

A place that wins over even those who come from far away

La Costa’s reputation does not live only on local tradition. Over the years more and more travellers have discovered this authentic corner of Italian cooking leaving words that Betta keeps with pride.

“Many guests, including foreigners, come here precisely to find something real,” she says. “When they tell us that you can breathe the true Italy here for us it is the greatest satisfaction.”

The testimonials speak for themselves.

“They call us a small authentic trattoria, a warm welcoming place where you eat like family” she says with a smile. “An English guest wrote that on a rainy day on the lake he got on the train and came to Albate and said it felt like walking into a Wes Anderson film.”

Other guests who returned after years still remember every dish.

“They tell us they still talk about cured meats they had never tasted before about the pasta that changed their idea of what Italian pasta is.”

And there are those who sitting on the terrace on a summer evening had an experience they never forgot. “It felt like eating at the home of an Italian family that only wants you to be well,” they wrote to us. A sentence that moved us deeply.

Many also talk about Ivan and the cellar.

“People often say that discovering our wine selection is a surprise within the surprise. Some choose a bottle at the end of the meal to take home a memory of the evening.”

“These words remind us every day why we do this work” Betta concludes. “Welcoming people makes them feel good, making them feel at home. That has always been the heart of La Costa.”

La Costa is not only a trattoria. It is a place that keeps flavours, memories and passions. It is a home that continues to tell the story of Como through what it puts on the plate and what it keeps on the walls.

“For us it is simple. We want you to feel at home. With the dishes of our land and with our story.”