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Stories from the lake

Lake timeline

Two thousand years of the lake in order of date: from the Roman road along the western shore to the first steamboat, from the fall of the Isola Comacina to the Olginate dam. Each date leads to the story that tells it and to the place where it happened.

Dates
82
Stories
27
Periods
6
Como harbour with the jetty and moored boats, the cathedral dome on the right and the Brunate hill behind the town.
Photochrom Print Collection · Public domain

11dates

Renaissance and foreign rule

1450–1699 · 1 date

  1. The convent at Varenna becomes a house

    Carlo Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, suppresses the Cistercian convent at Varenna, where too few nuns remain. In 1569 Paolo Mornico buys it and makes it a house: this is the origin of Villa Monastero.

    Place: Villa MonasteroStory: The monks' lake

    Villa Monastero from the balustrade over the lake, among palms and cypresses, the point of Varenna beyond.

Eighteenth century

1700–1799 · 1 date

  1. Villa del Balbianello on the Lavedo point

    Villa del Balbianello is built on the remains of a Franciscan convent at the tip of the Dosso di Lavedo. As the Milanese aristocracy takes to summering on the lake, the shore fills with residences that face the water, because guests arrive by boat.

    Place: Villa del BalbianelloStory: The villas and the microclimate

    The lawn running down to the lake below the loggia, with its pollarded plane trees, the gravel path and a few visitors.

Nineteenth century

1800–1899 · 5 dates

  1. 1808–1810

    Villa Melzi at Bellagio

    Francesco Melzi d'Eril, vice-president of Napoleon's Italian Republic, has a neoclassical villa built at Bellagio, with an English-style park that runs level along the water for hundreds of metres.

    Place: Villa Melzi GardensStory: The villas and the microclimate

    The park of Villa Melzi at Bellagio from the water, below the mountain.

  2. A hotel at Villa Cipressi

    The Venini family opens a hotel at Villa Cipressi, in Varenna, and runs it until 1864. In the same years, around 1825, Abbondio Genazzini's inn on the shore at Bellagio becomes a proper hotel.

    Place: Villa Cipressi GardensStory: The century of the grand hotels

    Villa Cipressi at Varenna from the water, its cypresses stepping down to the lake.

  3. Flaubert at Villa Sommariva

    Gustave Flaubert visits the villa at Tremezzo that will later be called Carlotta. He goes back several times to look at the Cupid and Psyche, which he believes to be by Canova, and on his last visit kisses the statue; the group is attributed to Adamo Tadolini, Canova's pupil.

    Place: Villa CarlottaStory: The writers' lake

    The white marble group of Cupid and Psyche seen close up, in a dimly lit room: Cupid, one wing raised high and the other lower, bends over Psyche, holding her head and breast in his hands; she leans back, lifting her arms round his head of thick curls; light from above picks out the arms and shoulders; behind, tall shuttered windows, a patterned glazed window and a bust on a pedestal.

  4. Villa Carlotta gets its name

    Marianne, who had bought the villa at Tremezzo in 1843, gives it to her daughter Charlotte on her marriage to Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen, and the villa takes its name from her. Its slope has acid soil, which is why the garden can grow azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias.

    Place: Villa CarlottaStory: The villas and the microclimate

    The botanical garden at Villa Carlotta, its palms, wisteria and flowering beds.

  5. The publisher Ricordi's villa at Cadenabbia

    Villa Margherita is built at Cadenabbia for the music publisher Ricordi, reportedly with the proceeds of Il trovatore. Giuseppe Verdi is often a guest, and Amilcare Ponchielli starts work there on I Lituani, staged at La Scala in 1874.

    Place: Villa Margherita Ricordi, CadenabbiaStory: The musicians' lake

    The yellow villa seen from the road: green shutters, the semicircular hall with its balcony, the name Margherita and the clock between two statues at the top, above the lawn and the balustrade.

Twentieth century

1900–1999 · 4 dates

  1. The Grand Hotel Tremezzo

    Enea Gandola opens a long Art Nouveau hotel on the shore at Tremezzo, with lifts and electric signs from the start.

    Place: Grand Hotel TremezzoStory: The century of the grand hotels

  2. Adenauer comes to Cadenabbia

    On the advice of his foreign minister, Heinrich von Brentano di Tremezzo, the German chancellor Konrad Adenauer spends a holiday at Cadenabbia, and Griante makes him an honorary citizen. He will spend eighteen holidays there until 1966, from 1959 at Villa La Collina.

    Place: GrianteStory: The chancellor on the lake

    Konrad Adenauer reading the newspaper in a wicker chair on the terrace of Villa La Collina at Cadenabbia, August 1961.

  3. The Élysée Treaty is saved at Cadenabbia

    At Cadenabbia, where Adenauer spends his holidays at Villa La Collina, the leaders of the German governing coalition meet, because ratification of the treaty with France is in danger of failing in the Bundestag. The chancellor agrees to add a preamble on the Atlantic alliance, and the treaty is saved.

    Place: Villa La Collina, CadenabbiaStory: The chancellor on the lake

    The yellow villa among the park's trees: two storeys of arches, the upper loggia with its iron railing, the gravel drive and a clipped hedge in front.

  4. Villa del Balbianello passes to the FAI

    The explorer Guido Monzino leaves the villa on the Lavedo point to the FAI, Italy's national trust, with his collections and the relics of his Everest and North Pole expeditions. The Balbianello is also a film location: ‘A Month by the Lake', ‘Star Wars: Episode II' and ‘Casino Royale' were among the films shot there.

    Place: Villa del BalbianelloStory: The lake on film

    The Lavedo point from above: the villa and the loggia at its tip, the terraced gardens and the blue water around them, two motorboats passing.