What happened
Nico Paz told Como 1907 that he expected the city to be smaller. Instead, he found more to explore than he had imagined—and one visit to Menaggio with his girlfriend stayed with him.
The detail belongs to a much longer adjustment. Paz left Tenerife for Real Madrid’s academy at eleven, then changed country, club, language, food and daily rhythm when he moved from Madrid to Como. He credited his family with making that latest move feel more normal.
Away from training, his reset sounds deliberately quiet: time at home, walks, visits to towns around the lake and occasional trips away from football. Menaggio was the place he singled out in the club’s account.
The Como view
Football moves players quickly and then asks them to look settled immediately. Paz’s account gives the other side of that process: family close by, familiar routines and enough curiosity to learn a new place one town at a time.
Sempre Como Editorial Desk
Menaggio makes sense as the stop that caught him. The town sits on the western shore in the centre of the lake, with its life gathered around Piazza Garibaldi, the ferry landing and the promenade. It feels connected to the rest of the lake without losing the slower pace Paz described wanting away from training.
That off-pitch comfort does not explain a pass or a goal by itself. It does, however, show why belonging matters. Como did not simply add a gifted midfielder; the player also had to build a life in a very different setting.
Bottom line
Menaggio was a memorable stop for Paz, rather than a grand statement about his permanent favourite place. That is what makes the detail feel real: one afternoon, one town and one more part of Como beginning to feel familiar.
What corner of the lake stayed with you after your first visit?