Lecco in a day, on foot

Six stops on foot between the station, the lake and the Adda, none more than a quarter of an hour from the last.

1. Transfer: Train40 min· Milano Centrale → Lecco, then a few minutes on foot

   Morning

   

   San Nicolò and the Matitone

   The basilica stands high above Piazza Cermenati, on the foundations of the old town walls, with written records from 1252. Beside it rises the neo-Gothic bell tower the people of Lecco call the Matitone, the big pencil: 96 metres, inaugurated on Christmas Eve 1904, and with the volunteers you climb its 396 steps to the bells, which look over the town, the lake and the Resegone.

2. Transfer: On foot5 min

   Morning

   

   Piazza XX Settembre and the Palazzo delle Paure

   On the square stands the Visconti tower, the only part of the town's fortifications to survive intact the demolitions of the late eighteenth century. Opposite is the neo-medieval building of 1905, put up for the tax office, hence its name, the palace of fears: today a civic museum, with modern art and photography and, on the third floor, the Lecco Mountaineering Museum, refitted by the CAI in 2024, from Riccardo Cassin to Carlo Mauri.

3. Transfer: On foot5 min

   Lunch

   Lunch on the lakefront

   Down to the lake. In Piazza Stoppani the bronze statue of the geologist abbot who wrote Il Bel Paese looks out over the lake, and in front of him, on a pillar in the lake, the gilded statue of San Nicolò, patron of the boatmen, has stood since 1955. The tables are along the shore and in the streets of the centre.

4. Transfer: On foot15 min

   Afternoon

   

   From Piazza Manzoni to Villa Manzoni

   In Piazza Manzoni the writer sits in bronze with the manuscript on his knees, in Francesco Confalonieri's statue of 1891, with Lucia's abduction and the betrothed's wedding carved on the base. A quarter of an hour further on is the villa that belonged to the family until 1818, where Manzoni spent his childhood: today the Manzoni museum, with manuscripts, editions and the town's art gallery.

5. Transfer: On foot10 min

   Afternoon

   

   Pescarenico, the fishermen's district

   On the left bank of the Adda, where the Lecco branch becomes the lake of Garlate, Pescarenico is the only district of Lecco that Manzoni names in The Betrothed, a little cluster of houses lived in mostly by fishermen. From here Lucia's flight leaves by boat, and here stood Fra Cristoforo's friary; among the coloured houses the lanes of its contrade remain.

6. Transfer: On foot10 min

   Evening

   

   The bridge where the lake becomes a river again

   Along the Adda you reach the bridge Azzone Visconti had built between 1336 and 1338 to tie Lecco to Milan: eleven arches, 131 metres, its towers pulled down in the nineteenth century to let carts through. It is the bridge of The Betrothed, the point where the lake gives way to the river again; the station is a quarter of an hour's walk away.