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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

Only the dates from the story ‘The villas and the microclimate'All dates

4dates

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 · 2 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. 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.

Twentieth century

1900–1999 · 1 date

  1. Enrico Fermi at Villa Monastero

    At Villa Monastero in Varenna, Enrico Fermi gives his last course. The villa, which grew out of a Cistercian convent, hosts physics schools, and its conference hall bears his name.

    Place: Villa MonasteroStory: The villas and the microclimate

    The lakeside loggia, flowers on the sill and the opposite shore beyond.