Cernobbio

Cernobbio's centre opens onto the lake at Piazza Risorgimento. On the square stands the boat station, with its Liberty pavilion and the iron pier of 1906. Just behind, on Piazza Gallio, is the church of San Vincenzo: it has medieval origins, was rebuilt from the mid-eighteenth century onwards and was the village's parish church until 1935. North of the square lies Villa d'Este; to the south, towards Como, Villa Erba.

Villa Bernasconi, the Liberty villa built in 1906 for a silk manufacturer, is a municipal museum. Cernobbio is also a place to set off on foot. Along the shore you are back in Como in under an hour, passing through the parks of Villa Sucota, the Grumello and Villa Olmo. Behind the village rises Monte Bisbino, on the Swiss border.

The name Cernobbio probably comes from the Latin coenobium, a monastery: in the Middle Ages a Benedictine monastery dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta stood here. In 1442 Gerardo Landriani, bishop of Como, founded a convent of nuns at the mouth of the Garovo stream. Between 1565 and 1570 Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio, born in Cernobbio, had it demolished and built a summer villa in its place, designed by Pellegrino Tibaldi. In 1873 the villa became the Villa d'Este hotel.

In the second half of the nineteenth century the Bernasconi family opened a silk-weaving business in the village. At the end of the century Luigi Erba and Anna Brivio had Villa Erba built on the land of the old monastery, closed in 1784. In the early twentieth century the Bernasconi added housing for their workers and a nursery school. Since 1975 the hotel has hosted the Ambrosetti Forum every September, an international meeting on economics and politics.

Villa d'Este is a hotel: you can see it from the road and from the water, but you cannot visit it. In the late eighteenth century the Calderara family remade its park with the Avenue of Hercules, a series of small cascades and basins climbing up to the statue group of Hercules and Lichas. In 1815 the villa was bought by Caroline of Brunswick, wife of the Prince of Wales, who gave it the name it still bears.

Villa Erba passed from Luigi Erba to his daughter Carla, wife of Duke Giuseppe Visconti di Modrone: their son Luchino, the film director, spent childhood summers here. In 1986 the heirs sold it to become a conference and exhibition centre; the park opens for events and fairs, and the historic villa can be visited on certain occasions. On the point towards Moltrasio, Villa Pizzo grew from an estate bought in 1435 by the Muggiasca family: it can only be seen in full from the lake, and it is visited on guided tours.

Cernobbio's patron saint is San Vincenzo, celebrated on 22 January. On the Saturday of Carnival, Rovenna, the hamlet on the hillside, holds its costume parade with the band, ending with the burning of the witch. In September the old centre hosts the two-day Festa del Borgo, devoted to the village's history and traditions.

The best-known events take place in the villas. The Concorso d'Eleganza, first held in 1929, brings historic cars together in May: the judged competition is held in the park of Villa d'Este, by invitation, while the public goes to Villa Erba with a ticket. In early October Villa Erba holds Orticolario for four days, a show of plants and gardens laid out in the park by the lake.

On the hillside behind the village lies the hamlet of Rovenna. From here a mule track climbs to Monte Bisbino, on the Swiss border: about three hours' walk from Cernobbio. The summit, at over 1,300 metres, can also be reached by car, on a road of hairpin bends that ends at the sanctuary.

The sanctuary, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, stands where a church is recorded as early as 1368. In 1630, during the plague, the villages of the area climbed up in procession and vowed to return if they were spared. Beside the sanctuary is a small museum of local history. From the summit you see the lake, the Swiss mountains and the plain. Cernobbio is also the start of the Via dei Monti Lariani, a path of about 125 kilometres that runs along the mountainsides above the western shore to Sorico.