# Italy's biggest lakes, on three measurements

> Garda is the largest Italian lake at 369.98 sq km and holds 49 cubic km of water, but Como is the deepest at 410 m. Three metrics, three different tables.

URL: https://myitalia.it/best/lakes-by-size
Last updated: 2026-09-02

Lake Garda is the largest Italian lake by surface, 369.98 sq km, and by volume, 49 cubic km, but the deepest is Lake Como at 410 m, so the answer changes with the measurement you pick.

## The criterion: three measurements, and three separate tables

Every lake below is ranked on three published measurements from an institutional source, and on nothing else. Surface, maximum depth and volume are three different questions, and merging them into one "biggest lakes" list is how most rankings go wrong.

The sources are not uniform, and that matters more than the ordering. Garda comes from the Comunità del Garda, Maggiore from CIPAIS, Como and Iseo from the 2004 OLL report, Bolsena from the Lazio water plan confirmed by ARPA Lazio, and Trasimeno from two Umbria region publications that contradict each other.

## By surface: Garda, then a long gap

Garda covers 369.98 sq km, or 143 sq miles, which is more than Maggiore and Como put together.

| Lake | Surface | Source |
|---|---:|---|
| Garda | 369.98 sq km | Comunità del Garda |
| Maggiore | 212.5 sq km | CIPAIS |
| Como | 145 sq km | OLL 2004 |
| Trasimeno | 124 to 128 sq km | Umbria region |
| Bolsena | about 114.5 sq km | PTAR Lazio |
| Iseo | 61 sq km | OLL 2004 |

Two of those rows are soft. Trasimeno has no single figure, and Bolsena's own source writes its surface as an approximation. CIPAIS itself publishes both 212 and 212.5 sq km for Maggiore on two different pages; the detail sheet gives 212.5, which is the number used here.

## By depth: Como wins, and Trasimeno is not in the race

Como reaches 410 m, 1,345 feet, and Trasimeno reaches 6 m at its deepest point.

| Lake | Maximum depth | Mean depth |
|---|---:|---:|
| Como | 410 m | 155 m |
| Maggiore | 370 m | 176 m |
| Garda | 346 m or 350 m | 133.3 m |
| Iseo | 251 m | 125 m |
| Bolsena | 151 m | not published |
| Trasimeno | 3 to 6 m | not published |

Maggiore is the odd one here: it is not the deepest at its deepest point, but it has the greatest mean depth of the six, 176 m against 155 m for Como. A lake can be deep everywhere or deep in one trench, and those are different lakes to swim in.

The frequently repeated line that Como is the deepest lake in Italy, or in Europe, is not in any source we could read. What the 2004 report supports is narrower: deepest of the large prealpine lakes.

## Garda is either 346 m or 350 m deep

Two Italian institutional sources give Lake Garda two different maximum depths, and this page is not going to pick one. The Comunità del Garda, the body that brings together the lakeside municipalities and provinces, publishes 346 m. The first OLL report of 2004, produced by the Lombardy region with ARPA, Fondazione Lombardia per l'Ambiente and CNR-IRSA, publishes 350 m.

Four meters is not a rounding artifact, and neither body has corrected the other. We record 346 m as the primary figure because it comes from the authority closest to the lake and is more recent, and we keep 350 m visible because it is the figure that appears in the comparison table with Como and Maggiore.

The limnological database of CNR-IRSA would be the independent check. Its server resolves but the connection times out, so the confirmation does not exist yet.

## By volume: two lakes have no published figure

Garda holds 49 cubic km of water, Maggiore 37.5, Como 22,500 million cubic meters, which is 22.5 cubic km, and Iseo 7,600 million cubic meters, which is 7.6.

Bolsena and Trasimeno publish no volume at all in the sources used here. That is not a small gap: without volume you cannot compare a shallow wide lake with a deep narrow one on the only measure that matters for water quality, which is how much water there is to dilute what goes into it.

## Trasimeno: two figures from the same regional authority

Trasimeno's surface is 128 sq km on the Umbria region's park page and 124 sq km in a PDF published by the same body. Its water surface elevation is not published by any institutional source we could open, and ARPA Umbria sits behind a challenge page we did not work around.

So Trasimeno appears in the surface table as a range and is absent from the volume table. It is the clearest case on this page of a lake that everybody describes and nobody measures in public.

## What the numbers change when you are standing there

Garda's water sits at 65 m above sea level and Bolsena's at 305 m, which is most of the reason the two lakes feel like different climates. Como sits at 198 m and Iseo at 186 m.

Depth is the other thing you feel. At 410 m, Como's water column never warms through; at 3 to 6 m, Trasimeno is warm by June and turbid after wind. Then the shape. Garda has 158.4 km of shoreline enclosing 369.98 sq km of water; Como has 170 km enclosing only 145 sq km, folding back on itself with a sinuosity index of 3.98. That index, not the distance, is what predicts your driving time.

## FAQ

### Which is the largest lake in Italy?

Lake Garda, at 369.98 sq km of surface, 51.6 km long and up to 17.2 km wide, with a shoreline of 158.4 km. It also holds the most water, 49 cubic km, well ahead of Maggiore at 37.5.

### Which is the deepest Italian lake?

Lake Como, at 410 m, is the deepest of the large prealpine lakes, ahead of Maggiore at 370 m and Garda. We avoid the common claim that it is the deepest lake in Italy or in Europe, because no source we could read states it.

### How deep is Lake Garda exactly?

Two official Italian sources disagree: the Comunità del Garda, the body of the lakeside municipalities, publishes 346 m, and the 2004 OLL report by the Lombardy region, ARPA and CNR-IRSA publishes 350 m. The gap is 4 m and nobody has reconciled it.

### How shallow is Lake Trasimeno?

Between 3 and 6 m deep, against 410 m at Como. Its surface is given as either 124 or 128 sq km by two publications of the same regional authority, and the elevation of its water surface is not published by any institutional source we could open.

### Which Italian lake is highest above sea level?

Of the six on this page, Bolsena, at 305 m above sea level, against 198 m for Como, 186 m for Iseo and just 65 m for Garda. Maggiore and Trasimeno do not publish an elevation for their water surface at all.

## Sources

| Fact | Source | Confidence | Valid until |
|---|---|---|---|
| Il Lago di Garda ha una superficie di 369,98 chilometri quadrati, una profondita' massima di 346 metri e una profondita' media di 133,30 metri, con lo specchio d'acqua a 65 metri sul livello del mare; contiene circa 49 chilometri cubi d'acqua, e' lungo 51,6 chilometri e largo al massimo 17,2, con 158,4 chilometri di perimetro e un bacino imbrifero di 2.260 chilometri quadrati. | [Comunita' del Garda (ente associativo dei comuni e delle province rivierasche, Salo')](https://www.comunitadelgarda.it/il-lago/geomorfologia/165-55.html); [Osservatorio dei Laghi Lombardi - Regione Lombardia, Fondazione Lombardia per l Ambiente, ARPA Lombardia, CNR-IRSA](https://fondazionefla.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Qualita-acque-lacustri-in-Lombardia.pdf) | medium | 2099-12-31 |
| Il Lago Maggiore (Verbano) ha una superficie di 212,5 chilometri quadrati, una profondita' massima di 370 metri e una profondita' media di 176 metri, con un volume di 37,5 chilometri cubi: e' il secondo lago italiano sia per superficie sia per volume. Il livello e' regolato dalla diga della Miorina a Sesto Calende. | [CIPAIS - Commissione Internazionale per la Protezione delle Acque Italo-Svizzere](https://www.cipais.org/web/lago-maggiore/il-lago); [CIPAIS](https://www.cipais.org/) | medium | 2099-12-31 |
| Il Lago di Como ha una superficie di 145 km2, una profondita' massima di 410 m e la quota media dello specchio d'acqua a 198 m s.l.m. | [Osservatorio dei Laghi Lombardi - Regione Lombardia, Fondazione Lombardia per l Ambiente, ARPA Lombardia, CNR-IRSA](https://fondazionefla.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Qualita-acque-lacustri-in-Lombardia.pdf) | medium | 2030-12-31 |
| Tra i grandi laghi prealpini il Lago di Como e' il piu' profondo con 410 m, davanti al Maggiore (370 m) e al Garda (350 m). | [Osservatorio dei Laghi Lombardi - Regione Lombardia, Fondazione Lombardia per l Ambiente, ARPA Lombardia, CNR-IRSA](https://fondazionefla.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Qualita-acque-lacustri-in-Lombardia.pdf) | medium | 2030-12-31 |
| Il Lago d'Iseo ha una superficie di 61 km2, una profondita' massima di 251 m e la quota media dello specchio d'acqua a 186 m s.l.m. | [Osservatorio dei Laghi Lombardi - Regione Lombardia, Fondazione Lombardia per l Ambiente, ARPA Lombardia, CNR-IRSA](https://fondazionefla.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Qualita-acque-lacustri-in-Lombardia.pdf) | medium | 2030-12-31 |
| Il Lago di Bolsena ha una superficie di circa 114,5 km2, una profondita' massima di 151 m e si trova a 305 m s.l.m.; il perimetro e' di 43 km. | [Regione Lazio - Piano di Tutela delle Acque Regionale, BUR n.103 del 20/12/2018](https://www.arpalazio.it/documents/20124/53249/Piano+di+Tutela+delle+Acque+Regionale+-+Aggiornamento.pdf); [ARPA Lazio](https://www.arpalazio.it/ambiente/acqua/laghi) | high | 2030-12-31 |
| Il Lago Trasimeno ha una superficie dello specchio d'acqua di 124-128 km2 e una profondita' molto ridotta, variabile fra 3 e 6 metri. | [Regione Umbria](https://www.regione.umbria.it/parco-regionale-del-lago-trasimeno); [Regione Umbria - Parco del Lago Trasimeno](https://www.regione.umbria.it/documents/18/2512711/Trasimeno_turismo_giu_15.pdf/754fd253-e5a9-427e-9b1b-2ad66afb126c) | medium | 2028-12-31 |

## Image

https://media.myitalia.it/media/theme.laghi.v2.1600.jpg
Author: kallerna. License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lago_di_Braies_South_Tyrol_9.jpg

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