It is the third Italian lake as a superficie with 145 km² and the first for perimeter development with 170 km.
Basin is the fifth deepest in Europe with its 410 meters after 4 Norwegian lakes.
It reaches a length of 46 km (Gera Lario - Como) and has a width of 650 meters to 4.3 km. fiordo carved entirely in the circle of the Lombard prealpi, with a characteristic shape inverted "Y" or, as one popular local saying, man-shaped:

It is one of the most beautiful Italian landscapes, settled in 800 by the major poets of Romanticism, by Alessandro Manzoni to Stendhal, to George Gordon Byron a Franz Liszt.
It is located 199 m s.l.m.

The topography varies from rolling hills and grassy with dolomites with serrated rocks, spiers and towers. The alluvial deposits, transported by rivers and streams, began to form with post-ice age and were the cause of the separation of the smaller lakes (Lake of Mezzola north and Garlate and of Olginate and south).

Catchment basin

The basin is composed of three different parts: the south-west branch of Como, south-east and north branch of Lecco branch of Colico (or "upper lake"), the most open of the three. I lock up the mountainous southern fjords Larian Triangle. The division of the three branches is clearly visible from the , above a title="Griante" href="/wiki/Griante">Griante. Particularly characteristic is the east coast of the Como branch, rugged and wooded. The countries are still composed of old houses built between the lake and mountains, with steep coastal stairways. All the Lario, however, is characterized by a steep landscape that forms a delicate balance with the construction type of the countries and major historical villas, clearly visible from one point to another bank because by the low width of the pelvis (not more than a mile in the two southern branches).
Also because of this severe physical conformation, tourism Larian did not know the phenomenon of "mass" typical of Lake Garda, being concerned solely with the salons of the aristocracy and artists who often were housed there, a living type of meditation that still today is found in ancient villas (observable from the lake rather than from the street), and - conversely - the ancient simplicity of the villages most humble ((Pognana, Careno, Nesso, Brienno, Colonno, Corenno Plinio ecc.).
Today, the landscape is seriously threatened by the recent phenomenon of the increase construction.