TO LAKE COMO Insider’S Guide to LAKE COMO
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Insider’s Guide TO LAKE COMO Insider’s Guide TO LAKE COMO Lario Hotels invites you to discover a magical lake with breathtaking views and a fascinating history just waiting to be explored. The spellbinding panorama and the sparkling waters, with their reflections of the mountains, the scenery and the architecture, are a unique combination to be found nowhere else. The places to see and the vantage points from which to see them are infinite. For two thousand years nature and man have lived here side-by-side, in a setting of rare beauty that has inspired artists, poets, writers, musicians, film directors and a host of others. LARIO HOTELS SHARES THE SECRETS OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LAKE IN THE WORLD The hotels of the Lario Hotel group are not just experiences to be enjoyed, but also important ALBERGO TERMINUS was built in the early 20TH century in an eclectic and Art Nouveau style, links to the nation’s history, of which they are an integral part. The historic buildings, the villas, and is noteworthy for its frescoed rooms and its spectacular two-storey hall and particularly for the Art Nouveau and the rationalist style are all beautifully represented among them. its distinctive tower, now a guest room with a 360 degree view. VISTA PALAZZO, LAGO DI COMO, originally the Palazzo Venezia, in a neo-Gothic style, is a POSTA DESIGN HOTEL was designed by the genius of Rationalism, Giuseppe Terragni, whose reminder of the silk manufacturing tradition, as well as the city’s history of welcoming visitors. most significant works are to be found right here in Como. HOTEL VILLA FLORI is the result of the expansion of an existing structure built by the Marquis So, our four hotels are the starting points for a similar number of journeys of exploration – Raimondi as a wedding present for his daughter, who married Garibaldi. The hotel still preserves CLASSIC COMO, 19TH CENTURY VILLAS, ART NOUVEAU AND RATIONALISM – to which can be the 19th-century, furnishings in the room where the “hero of the two worlds” stayed. added countless others, providing for a unique variety of perspectives from which Lake Como can be appreciated. We have set out for you ten unusual, and even surprising, theme-based suggestions to ensure your visit to our area is truly unforgettable. ITINERARY 1 • CLASSIC COMO PALAZZO VENEZIA CLASSIC COMO CLASSIC Palazzo Venezia, which after careful renovation, became home to the Vista Palazzo | Lago di Como in 2018, is an important architectural testimony to the dual identity of Como - a renowned tourist destination on the one hand and on the other a city known for centuries as the source of some of the world’s finest silk. The prestigious building was erected in 1870, following the ITINERARY 1 ITINERARY demolition of a dye works, and immediately after the reclamation of what is now Piazza Cavour from the old port in 1869. Originally the headquarters of the Schmidt & Lorenzen silkworks, Palazzo Venezia is distinguished by a neo-Gothic façade, unique in Como, dominated by Venetian palace inspired single-and triple-lancet windows, with their characteristically slender columns that give the building an almost weightless luminosity. Another distinctive feature is the clock affixed to the corner of the building that dates back to 1904, making it the oldest of the 120 such clocks scattered throughout the city. The Vista Palazzo revives the original tradition of the eastern flank of the piazza, where Como’s first deluxe hotels opened in the early 1800s. At the Tate Gallery in London (or on its website) you can admire a watercolor, Como: Sunset, painted by the great William Turner in 1843 through a window of the former Dell’Angelo Hotel, now home to a bank, where Franz Liszt’s daughter, Cosima, was born on Christmas Eve of 1837. THE CATHEDRAL SANT’ABBONDIO THE CATHEDRAL BASILICA OF SANT’ABBONDIO Dedicated to the Blessed Virgin of the Assumption, One of the most important examples of Romanesque it is the third largest religious structure in Lombardy, architecture in Italy, it was consecrated by Pope CLASSIC COMO CLASSIC after the Duomo of Milan and the Certosa of Pavia. Urban II in 1095. Built on the remains of a 5th- Interestingly, all three buildings originated in 1396 as century church, it bears the name of the patron saint inscribed on a stone at the center of the rear façade. of Como, who is buried there. The complex, located Construction of the cathedral, built largely of marble on the ancient Via Regina that connected Italy with from the Musso quarries on Lake Como, continued for Europe, also includes the cloister, a monastery until three-and-a-half centuries until 1744, when the dome 1783 - now the seat of the University of Insubria - was completed. A notable curiosity is the Porta della and the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian. A Rana, or “door of the frog,” on the side of the cathedral late 19th-century restoration brought the distinctive facing the lake, featuring a bronze frog believed to bring double bell tower back to life. The anonymous good luck. Today, it is almost invisible, worn away from fresco cycle in the presbytery is among the most centuries of superstitious caresses. significant of the Lombard Trecento. ITINERARY 1 ITINERARY SAN FEDELE TEATRO SOCIALE BASILICA OF TEATRO SOCIALE SAN FEDELE Como’s first cathedral, built in the 5th century along Built between 1811 and 1813, it was the site of the with the nearby church of San Pietro in Atrio - now an 13th-century Castello della Torre Rotonda. It is exhibition space - and the baptistery of San Giovanni part of the circuit of Traditional Lombard Theatres in Atrio (the columns of which were reused in 1800 for and, from 1943 to 1946, hosted La Scala, whose the portico of the high school on Via Cantù named after Milan home was bombed during the war. A Alessandro Volta), was originally dedicated to Saint temple of opera, the stage of the Teatro Sociale Euphemia. Between the 10th and 12th centuries it has hosted the likes of Paganini, Liszt, Mascagni, was rebuilt in the Romanesque style and dedicated Pasta, Toscanini and Muti. The hall is in the shape to San Fedele, protomartyr of the 4th century, whose of a cello case, with a capacity of 999 people. For remains were found in Sorico (where the temple of San the 2013 bicentenary, restoration was done on the Fedelino stands) and moved to the basilica in 984. The outdoor arena at the rear with its historic velarium rear portal is decorated with allegorical zoomorphic showcasing Alessandro Sanquirico’s painting of the figures. death of Pliny the Elder. ITINERARY 1 - CLASSIC COMO ITINERARY 2 • VILLAS AND MANSIONS VILLA FLORI An exceptional gift for a wedding that should have been no less exceptional itself, but which turned VILLAS AND MANSIONS VILLAS out otherwise. Villa Flori was built in 1859 by the Marquis Giorgio Raimondi as a wedding present for his daughter Giuseppina, promised bride of the “Hero of the Two Worlds,” Giuseppe Garibaldi. Indeed, the hotel has a room dedicated to Garibaldi, the main architect of the Unification of Italy, boasting the tiled stove and lacquered wooden wardrobe that furnished the general’s room when he was in residence. As his building site, Raimondi secured one of the most panoramic positions on the western branch of the lake, with a view that stretches from the villages of Torno and Blevio to the Dome of Como Cathedral. A fervent patriot, he was enthusiastic about his daughter’s marriage, even though his future son-in-law was 52 and she was 18. Less happy was Giuseppina, who loved another soldier, ITINERARY 2 ITINERARY Luigi Caroli. Only when the latter left her did she agree to marry her older suiter. They had met on June 1, 1859, five days after Garibaldi’s victory against the Austrians at San Fermo, near Como. They married on January 24, 1860 in the chapel of another villa belonging to Raimondi, in Fino Mornasco, and separated that same evening; when they returned to their rooms, Garibaldi left a note accusing his wife of loving another. Despite the general’s immediate departure, Giuseppina refused to dissolve the marriage until 1880, as a means of defending her reputation. Meanwhile, in 1865 her father sold the villa to the Flori family, in whose hands it remained until it was again sold. It became a hotel in 1958 and, in 2011, underwent a total renovation that re-incorporated the splendor that had characterized the original structure. The hotel’s restaurant continues to bear the Raimondi name, along with the 19th century charm of the villa when it was first erected. VILLA OLMO VILLA CARLOTTA VILLA OLMO VILLA CARLOTTA Designed by architect Simone Cantoni in the Neoclassical Built in the last decade of the 17th century in one style, Villa Olma is the most imposing of the villas on the of the most famous locations on Lake Como (“Then western branch of Lake Como. It was commissioned in we’ll go to Tremezzo, it will be divine,” said Greta 1782 by the Como nobleman Innocenzo Odescalchi to Garbo in the 1932 film Grand Hotel) Villa Carlotta occupy land where, according to Giovan Battista Giovio, is an example of Baroque style. It is renowned humanist and friend of Odescalchi, the home of the both for the art collection displayed throughout Latin poet Caninio Rufo once stood - one described (including several sculptures by Canova and his in a letter by Pliny the Younger. Among Odescalchi’s school, such as Amor and Psyche, and The Last VILLAS AND MANSIONS VILLAS notable guests were Napoleon Bonaparte and the poet Kiss of Romeo and Juliet by Hayez, and for its vast Ugo Foscolo.