Lake Como

Lake Como
Panoramic view of Lake Como with Grigna Mountains and Bellagio
Location	Lombardy, Italy
Coordinates	46°00′N 9°16′E / 46.000°N 9.267°E / 46.000; 9.267Coordinates: 46°00′N 9°16′E / 46.000°N 9.267°E / 46.000; 9.267
Primary inflows	Adda River, Mera River
Primary outflows	Adda River
Catchment area	4,509 km2 (1,741 sq mi)[1]
Basin countries	Italy, Switzerland
Max. length	46 km (29 mi)
Max. width	4.5 km (2.8 mi)
Surface area	146 km2 (56 sq mi)
Average depth	154 m (505 ft)[1]
Max. depth	425 m (1,394 ft)
Water volume	22.5 km3 (18,200,000 acre·ft)
Residence time	5.5 years[1]
Shore length1	160 km (99 mi)
Surface elevation	198 m (650 ft)[1]
Islands	Isola Comacina
Settlements	Como, Lecco (see section)
References	[1]
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Lake Como (Lago di Como [ˈlaːɡo di ˈkɔːmo] or locally [ˈlaːɡo di ˈkoːmo] in Italian, also known as Lario [ˈlaːrjo], after the Latin name of the lake; Lagh de Comm [ˈlaːk de ˈkɔm] in Lombard; Latin: Larius Lacus) is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of 146 square kilometres (56 sq mi), making it the third-largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore. At over 400 metres (1,300 feet) deep, it is one of the deepest lakes in Europe, and the bottom of the lake is more than 200 metres (660 ft) below sea level.

Lake Como has been a popular retreat for aristocrats and wealthy people since Roman times, and a very popular tourist attraction with many artistic and cultural gems. It has many villas and palaces (such as Villa Olmo, Villa Serbelloni, and Villa Carlotta). Many famous people have or have had homes on the shores of Lake Como, such as Matthew Bellamy, John Kerry, Madonna, George Clooney,^[2] Gianni Versace, Ronaldinho, Sylvester Stallone, Julian Lennon, Richard Branson, Ben Spies, and Pierina Legnani.

In 2014, The Huffington Post called it the most beautiful lake in the world for its microclimate and environment with prestigious villas and villages.^[3]

Etymology

The lake's name in Latin is Larius, Italianised as Lario, but this name is rarely used; it is usually called Lago di Como (literally "lake of Como"). In guidebooks the lake may be variously referred to as Lake Como, Lake of Como, or Como Lake. Its name comes from the city of Como, known to the Romans as Comum.

While the town of Como is referred to as Como, the lake is never referred to solely by this name. This is not true of another lake in Italy, Lake Garda, where Garda may refer to either the town fronting the lake, or the lake.

Geography

Aerial photograph of Lake Como, showing its distinctive three-armed shape.

The lake is shaped much like an inverted letter "Y". The northern branch begins at the town of Colico, while the towns of Como and Lecco sit at the ends of the southwestern and southeastern branches respectively. The small towns of Bellagio, Menaggio and Lierna are situated at the intersection of the three branches of the lake: a triangular boat service operates between them. The Lierna area is a historical charming site of the lake with a white beach and a famous castle.

Lake Como is fed primarily by the Adda River, which enters the lake near Colico and flows out at Lecco. This geological conformation makes the southwestern branch a dead end, and so Como, unlike Lecco, is often flooded.

The mountainous pre-alpine territory between the two southern arms of the lake (between Como, Bellagio, and Lecco) is known as the Larian Triangle,^[4] or Triangolo lariano. The source of the river Lambro is here. At the centre of the triangle, the town of Canzo is the seat of the Comunità montana del Triangolo lariano, an association of the 31 municipalities that represent the 71,000 inhabitants of the area.

Climate

Lake Como weather is humid subtropical (Cfa in the Koeppen climate classification). In the winter, the lake helps to maintain a higher temperature in the surrounding region. Average daily temperatures range from about 3.7 °C (39 °F) in January to 23.4 °C (74 °F) in July, according to historical weather data from Como.^[5] Water temperatures can reach an average of 24 °C (75 °F) during the month of July. Snowfall is erratic and primarily affects the higher elevations. Rainfall is heaviest in May and lowest during the winter months.

Tourism

As a tourist destination, Lake Como is popular for its landscapes, wildlife, and spas.^[6] It is a venue for sailing, windsurfing, and kitesurfing.^[7] In 1818 Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote to Thomas Love Peacock: "This lake exceeds anything I ever beheld in beauty, with the exception of the arbutus islands of Killarney. It is long and narrow, and has the appearance of a mighty river winding among the mountains and the forests".^[8]

In the area surrounding Lake Como there are several farms which produce goods such as honey, olive oil, cheese, milk, eggs and salamis. One can find lists of these farms and typically visit the farm itself in person to make their purchases.^[9]

Lakeside villas

Villa Carlotta.

Villa Melzi d'Eril.

Villa del Balbianello.

Lake Como from lakeside villa

The lake is well known for the attractive villas that have been built there since Roman times, when Pliny the Younger built the Comedia and the Tragedia resorts. Many villas on the lake shores have admirable gardens that benefit from the mild climate induced by the stabilising presence of 22.5 km³ of lake water and are fit to host tropical plants.

Villa Carlotta was built for the Milanese Marquis Giorgio Clerici in 1690 and occupies a site of over 7 ha (17 acres) at Tremezzo, facing the Bellagio peninsula. An Italian garden (with steps, fountains, and sculptures) was laid out at the same time. The villa was later sold to powerful banker and Napoleonic politician Giovanni Battista Sommariva. Stendhal was his guest in 1818, and his visit is recalled at the start of La Chartreuse de Parme. In 1843 it was purchased by Princess Marianne of Nassau as a wedding present for her daughter Carlotta, after whom the villa is now named. The latter, together with her husband Georg II of Saxen-Meiningen, laid out the woodland landscape park in Romantic style. The villa today includes a museum of agricultural implements as well as important works of sculpture by Sommariva’s friend Antonio Canova and by Luigi Acquisti.^[10]

Villa d'Este, in Cernobbio, was built in 1568 by Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio, a native of the town. In 1816–1817 the villa was home to Caroline of Brunswick, estranged wife of the Prince of Wales and shortly to become Queen Consort of King George IV of the United Kingdom. The landscaped gardens in the English style are a product of this period. Later in the century it was turned into a luxury hotel. Today the Villa d’Este is known for attracting celebrity guests.

Villa del Balbianello, famous for its elaborate terraced gardens, lies on a promontory of the western shore of the lake near Isola Comacina. Built in 1787 on the site of a Franciscan monastery, it was the final home of the explorer Guido Monzino and today houses a museum devoted to his work.

Villa Melzi d'Eril in Bellagio was built in neo-classical style by architect Giocondo Albertolli in 1808–10 as the summer residence of Duke Francesco Melzi d'Eril, who was vice-president of the Napoleonic Italian Republic. The park includes an orangery, a private chapel, fine statues, and a Japanese garden, and is planted, as often on lake Como, with huge rhododendrons. 19th-century guests at the Villa included Stendhal and Franz Liszt.^[11]

Villa Serbelloni, also in Bellagio, hosts the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, a 50-acre (200,000 m²) international conference center set up and managed by the Rockefeller Foundation since 1959, which also operates a "scholar-in-residence" program for scholars from around the world. This is believed to have been the site of Pliny the Younger’s villa "Tragedia". Its well-known park was created at the end of the 18th century by Alessandro Serbelloni.

Ferries

The Lake Como ferry service is a highly developed public transport system linking the many small towns around the Lake. A motorized service began in 1826 when a steamship with sails, the “Lario”, was launched by the newly established Società privilegiata per l'impresa dei battelli a vapore nel Regno Lombardo Veneto. Since 1952 the system has been run under the auspices of a government organization called first the Gestione Commissariale Governativa and subsequently the Gestione Governativa Navigazione Laghi, which is also responsible for services on Lake Maggiore and Lake Garda.^[12][13]

Today there are three main services:

• Motorship services along the western branch and northern end of the Lake (between Colico or Piona and Como town), with additional shuttles to the mid-lake area.
• Fast services that follow broadly the same route, but use faster hydrofoils, stop less frequently, and cost extra.
• Ferries that run only between the popular mid-lake villages of Menaggio, Bellagio, and Varenna, plus Cadenabbia. Some of these boats carry vehicles as well as passengers.^[14]

The lake boat Concordia and the car ferry Plinio.

Sacro Monte di Ossuccio

Chapel 5 of Sacro Monte di Ossuccio. Disputation with the Doctors

The Sacro Monte di Ossuccio ("Holy Mount of Ossuccio") is a sanctuary located on a hillside slope between olive groves and woods along the western edge of Lake Como facing Isola Comacina. Fifteen Baroque inspired chapels, built between 1635 and 1710, and dedicated to the Mysteries of the Rosary are dotted along the way that leads to the Monastery. This building is the last in the chain and is dedicated to the Coronation of the Virgin.

In 2003, the Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy, including that of Ossuccio, were added by UNESCO to the World Heritage List.

Villages, resorts, and other remarkable localities near the lake

The Parco Meier, a public garden at Tremezzo

References in literature

Lake Como at Lecco

• Ernst Stavro Blofeld retreats to a "metropolitan hotel" on Lake Como after his plans are foiled by James Bond in the novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming.
• Gaius Catullus asks his friend Caecilius to depart from Lake Como to Rome in poem 35.
• Paul the Deacon, a Lombard grammarian and poet of the 8th century, wrote one of his better known poems in praise of Lake Como (Versus in Laude Larii Laci).^[15]
• Alessandro Manzoni chose to start his The Betrothed with a graphic description of Lake Como.
• Fabrice del Dongo, the protagonist of The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal, is born and raised near Lake Como.
• Mark Twain visited Lake Como in the summer of 1867. He describes the lake and its environs at length in The Innocents Abroad, which recounts a lengthy pleasure excursion to Jerusalem.
• The character of Victor Frankenstein marries Elizabeth in the vicinity of Lake Como in the novel by Mary Shelley.
• The lake is referenced by Jean in August Strindberg's magnum opus play Miss Julie.
• Ernest Hemingway's character Lieutenant Henry in A Farewell to Arms talks about taking a vacation to Lake Como.
• Nagg and Nell recollect rowing out onto Lake Como the day after their engagement in Samuel Beckett's play Endgame.
• Cadenabbia on Lake Como is the principal setting for Gladys Theodora Parrish Huntingdon's novel Madame Solario.
• Maria Ruskin, a character in Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities, escapes from New York City to Lake Como, in order to spend time with Artist Filipo Chirazzi.

Sports

Lake Como is the setting of the annual Classic cycling race, the Giro di Lombardia (Tour of Lombardy).

Gallery

Lake Como seen from Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo, near the centre of the lake.

Lake Como seen from the city of Como.

View of Lecco and the Lake of Como, branch of Lecco, from "Ciresa plain" on Mt. Barro.

Shoreline of Como from inside Lake Como

See also

• Italy portal
• Geography portal

Notes

References

• Macadam, Alta (1997). Blue Guide. Northern Italy: From the Alps to Bologna. London: A & C Black. ISBN 0-7136-4294-7.
• Villacarlotta.it, Villa Carlotta

External links

• Media related to Lake Como at Wikimedia Commons
• Lake Como travel guide from Wikivoyage