There is a reason why Bellagio is nicknamed “the pearl of Lake Como”. And this reason is not just landscape. Sinuously placed on the slopes of a characteristic promontory (Punta Spartivento) which divides the Como branch from the Lecco branch, Bellagio in the past hosted those that are nowadays called “vip”. Great names in history, in fact, have had the pleasure of staying in this enchanting lake village, which is somewhat the symbol of the Lario.
Nei vicoli di Bellagio
Its narrow alleys and its dizzying staircases are real movie sets, so much so as to have given inspiration to directors of the caliber of Luchino Visconti and Sergio Leone, who in the centre of Bellagio shot respectively the famous films Rocco and his brothers and Once upon a time in America. The splendid and majestic Villa Serbelloni, on the other hand, has hosted very important characters who stand out on the pages of school subsidiaries, from Emperor Maximilian I to Leonardo da Vinci, passing through Ludovico il Moro, Bianco Sforza and Cardinal Borromeo.
Gardens of Villa Melzi
In the nineteenth century, while they were strolling along the lakefront, they took inspiration for their written works Silvio Pellico and Alessandro Manzoni, who set several chapters of I Promessi Sposi in Lake Como. And even Queen Victoria gave herself a holiday in Bellagio. Villa Melzi d’Eril, another palace of incredible architectural charm, jealously guards some paintings by Andrea Appiani and sculptures by Antonio Canova. While the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt and the Frenchman Stendhal relaxed outdoors in the manicured english style gardens of Villa Melzi, a sort of botanical eden. I wonder if his syndrome arose contemplating the beauty of Bellagio.
