I had dreamed of Lake Como my entire life. I imagined (rather romantically) how I would stand at the water's edge, my eyes drowning in beauty, my brain finally exhaling and forgetting every single problem I had been carrying. Last year, that dream came true — my family and I went on holiday to Lake Como, staying in a small town called Lierna. We found it completely by accident: we were scrolling the map, looking for somewhere to stay, and Lierna just appeared.

The easiest way for us was by car from Milan. We just rented a car at the airport and drove about an hour to Lierna — the town sits on the eastern shore of the lake, roughly 80 kilometres north of the Milano Malpensa Airport.

We rented Casa Lucia, run by the wonderful Nicole, who was born and raised in Lierna and whose family owns the restaurant here, La Breva. The house has two bedrooms, a generous living room, and a beautiful private courtyard where you can have lunch in the shade or just lie on a sun lounger doing absolutely nothing. It's also dog-friendly, which, for anyone travelling with a pet, immediately narrows the options on Lake Como, so it is worth knowing.

Speaking of La Breva — the pasta, the steaks, everything is wonderful. As I mentioned, it is a family restaurant: Nicole takes your order, and her parents run the kitchen.

My most vivid memory from that restaurant isn't even the food. One evening, a storm hit Lierna so suddenly and so hard that you couldn't see a metre ahead, and there was no way of knowing when it would stop. We waited it out in the restaurant with Nicole’s family. When the rain finally eased enough for us to see the road, she offered to drive us home so that we wouldn’t get soaked. That kind of hospitality is hard to come by.

Also unmissable: Sottovento — beautiful spot on the waterfront. For breakfast, head to Sister's Café. And La Porta Verde was our very first stop when we arrived, exhausted and starving. Their mortadella pizza is one of the best things I ate on that entire trip.

For groceries and basics — sunscreen, a pair of flip-flops, whatever you forgot to pack — Il Negozio Market Amico has it all, just don't get caught out on a Sunday when it is closed. For local food, go to Il Buon Gusto: honey, fresh pasta, cured meats, cheese, incredible salads.

Varenna is ten minutes by car — though be ready to circle for parking. While you are there, it is worth going to Castello di Vezio, a medieval fortress that has sat above the lake for over a thousand years. The views from the tower are spectacular. Look at this!

The grounds of the fortress are dotted with white plaster "ghosts" — life-size figures cast from real volunteers each season, left to stand in the gardens until winter. They are there because of a legend: the castle is said to have been built at the wish of Queen Theodelinda, ruler of the Lombards, who spent her final years in this area. According to the story, her soul is buried within the castle walls and wanders its halls on moonless nights. The ghosts are a way of keeping that legend alive.

We also visited a winery, IndoVino, and drove out to Val di Mello — and that alone was worth the whole trip. Sometimes called the "Little Yosemite of Italy," it is a protected nature reserve with dramatic granite cliffs, turquoise streams, and alpine meadows that feel almost implausibly beautiful.

The main trail follows the Mello stream through the valley, passing waterfalls and mountain lakes, and covers the whole valley in about an hour and a half with almost no elevation gain — perfectly manageable for families with small children. If you want more of a challenge, trails branch off towards higher pastures with sweeping panoramic views.

Lierna is a place that seems almost engineered to slow you down. This tiny town made me allow myself to dissolve into doing nothing.

Like many of you, I live a busy life with a lot of stuff to do and with my laptop always open. And here all this work, all these worries, were replaced by something I hadn't expected: actual presence. The sound of the lake. The quality of light in the late afternoon. It completely reset me.

Coming home was its own kind of shock. I could barely work for the first few days back. And I have started to wonder whether that is a bad sign or a very good one — whether the difficulty of re-entry isn't a problem with Lierna, but a measure of how badly I needed it.

The title of this piece is: the place where I managed to switch off. I wrote it as a description of a destination. Looking back, I think it was really a description of what happened to me.