LAKE COMO - HISTORY

All of this land was once known as Cisalpine Gaul, a Celtic province that frequently found itself pitted up against a pre-Imperial ancient Rome in peninsular conflicts. Cisalpine Gaul`s alliance with the Samnites against Rome failed, as did a later alliance with Hannibal. This allowed the growing Roman Republic to conquer the region and push its own borders north, establishing military camps that eventually grew into such cities as Milan, Brescia, and Como.

Lake Como itself has inspired artists and Romantics since Roman times. Several local boys made it big, including the ancient historians Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger and famed scientist Alessandro Volta.

Como`s visitors have ranged from composers (Liszt, Verdi, Bellini) to writers (Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth) to movie directors (parts of A Month by the Lake, Star Wars II and III, and the James Bond reboot of Casino Royale were filmed here (all, as it so happens, at the same place: the Villa Balbianello outside Lenno).