Stories from the lake

Stories of the lake: its trades, winds, cooking, architecture and life out of season.

Portrait·2 min

The Lucie, the boats with hoops

Manzoni described them without naming them, and ever since they have carried his heroine's name. They are still on the water, and every summer they race.

Graziano Cannoletta · CC BY-SA 4.0

Story·2 min

Missoltini, the fish preserved in the sun

Shad are caught in summer, dried in the sun and wind and pressed into tins with bay leaves, to be eaten in the months that follow.

Feature·5 min

The olive coast

Oliveto Lario takes its name from the olive, and for centuries the oil of this stretch of the Lecco branch burned in the lamps on Saint Ambrose's tomb. Today it has a protected designation, rules that forbid calling it “superior”, and a path that runs through the groves.

Story·7 min

The smugglers' lake

The paths between the Lario valleys and Switzerland were used by smugglers carrying tobacco, salt and coffee. Museums in Cavargna and Erbonne preserve objects from this trade and from border surveillance; some barracks have been converted into mountain huts.

Story·8 min

The fall of the Isola Comacina

For ten years the Isola Comacina fought alongside Milan against Como. In 1169 the people of Como, strong again under Barbarossa, razed it and threw its stones into the lake; its people fled to Varenna. A legend of a curse is associated with its destruction. The war, the destruction and what excavation has found beneath the ruins.

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