| Lake Como Poetry Way | |
.jpg/250px-Brunate_-_La_Nuova_Casetta_per_scambio_libri_sulla_LCPW_(Lake_Como_Poetry_Way).jpg) | |
| Itinerary type | Pedestrian |
|---|---|
| State | Italy |
| Region | Lombardy |
| Territory | Comasco |
| Start | Vacallo (Roggiana) |
| end | Brunate |
| Length | 16 km |
| Time | 6 hours |
| Difference in height | 517 m |
| Difference in descent | 137 m |
| Tourism site | |
There Lake Como Poetry Way it is a pedestrian itinerary of 16 km which is articulated through the municipalities of Cernobbio, Como is Brunate on the Lake Como narrated by 16 internationally renowned personalities who have lived and told about these places. The route is also outlined by 12 Little Free Library dedicated to the exchange of books.
Introduction
This permanent itinerary resulted from the project Creative Walks, promoted by the association Path of Dreams, born in the Como area with the aim of discovering (or rediscovering) the places that surround us through the characters and / or events that characterized them. The proposed itineraries follow the common thread of the arts (poetry, literature, cinema, music), leading the visitor to the rediscovery of the territory through its genius loci.
The itinerary connects points of interest characteristic of the territory, enhancing characters, places and monuments having as fil rouge some historical figures who have intertwined ties with the territory itself and which allow an original narration to be built around it.
How to get
This route is described and designed starting from Roggiana and arriving in Brunate after crossing Cernobbio and Como, however it can be divided as desired or tackled in the opposite direction.
By bus
From Como, to reach the starting point by public transport you need to use the urban line 6 of the ASF lines.
Preparations
To better tackle this itinerary, it is advisable to wear trekking shoes, in particular for the stage number 15 of the mule track of the hermitage of San Donato between Como and Brunate. Those who prefer to reach Brunate using the variant of the funicular only need to wear comfortable shoes suitable for the length of the route.
Since it is not a circular route, for those arriving in Como by their own means it is advisable to leave the vehicle at the parking lot near Villa Bernasconi in Cernobbio which is conveniently connected by public transport to both the starting and arrival points.
Stages
Lake Como Poetry Way: full screen map.The itinerary is organized in sixteen stages that allow you to see some of the most interesting places in Roggiana, Cernobbio, Como and Brunate, associating each of them with one or more anecdotes of cultural figures who have linked their name to Como.
Roggiana
- 1 Pass of Roggiana, via Scaletto - (go to the stage)
Cernobbio
- 2 Villa Besana-Ciani, via Besana - (go to the stage)
- 3 Villa del Grumello, way to Cernobbio - (go to the stage)
Como
- 4 Villa Olmo, via Simone Cantoni - (go to the stage)
- 5 Villa Gallia, via Borgovico - (go to the stage)
- 6 War Memorial, Viale Giancarlo Puecher - (go to the stage)
- 7 Volta Temple, Lungo Lario Marconi - (go to the stage)
- 8 Piazza Cavour - (go to the stage)
- 9 Como Cathedral (portal), Piazza del Duomo - (go to the stage)
- 10 Como Cathedral (south facade), via Mestri Comacini - (go to the stage)
- 11 Social Theater, piazza Verdi - (go to the stage)
- 12 Piazzetta Baratelli - (go to the stage)
- 13 civic Museum, Piazza Medaglie d'Oro - (go to the stage)
Brunate
- 14 Como - Brunate mule track, starting from the stairs in Como - (go to the stage)
- 15 Alessandro Volta Public Garden, via Funicolare - (go to the stage)
- 16 Volta Lighthouse, via Giacomo Scalini - (go to the stage)
Little free library
Also since "There is no book so bad that it cannot help in some of its parts", as he states Pliny the Elder, Como, which has made the greatest contribution to world culture, together with the inventor of the battery Alessandro Volta, the Lake Como Poetry Way, is a path marked by twelve Little Free Library below listed where to freely pick up and drop off books.
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1 - Roggiana Pass, Luigi Dottesio
The itinerary starts from that border area between Italy is Switzerland, among the countries of Vacallo is Maslianico, known as Pass of Roggiana, one of the famous smuggling routes between the two states.
- «Our fathers erected a statue for him in a sacred place: it would be [...] worthy of the kindness of the present customs to raise luster to our homeland with a [...] work that would join the age of those two great ones of ours, Pliny and Time.»
So he wrote Luigi Dottesio about Pliny the Elder in his book Biographical information of the illustrious Como, published in 1847 in Switzerland by Capolago Helvetic Typography, of which the author, then municipal deputy secretary in Como, clandestinely imported the texts prohibited in the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. A smuggling of culture and ideals that cost him his life. Luigi Dottesio, arrested on 12 January 1851 precisely at this point from where the itinerary starts, was hanged in Venice on 11 October of the same year. As a martyr to the freedom of the press, he bequeathed a biography that is still inspiring today, as well as being the first commoner to represent Como and its province on official occasions. In his private life he lived an extraordinary love story with the patriot, Giuseppina Perlasca Bonizzoni, five years older than him and mother of six children, and sacrificed herself for a country that she imagined united primarily by culture.
From the border with Switzerland, we head towards the Lake Como to admire a first glimpse of it.
Distance between first and second stage: 3 km, about 30 minutes on foot on a slightly downhill asphalted road.
Note: this distance can also be covered by car, through an alternative road that does not have pedestrian sections, leaving the car at the Villa Erba car park located along the SP71 - Vecchia Regina.
2 - Riva di Cernobbio, Vincenzo Monti
From the pass, walk along via Scaletto, which then becomes via per la Svizzera and then again via Vittorio Emanuele II, up to the intersection of via Battista Mondelli. Here, turn right and continue along via Battista Mondelli until the intersection with via Paolo Carcano. Turn right again along via Paolo Carcano and after a few meters left along via Don Giovanni Minzoni (pedestrian only). At the intersection with via XXV Aprile, turn left and a few meters later right taking a pedestrian crossing that leads to via Giandrini. Continue along via Giandrini until you reach a roundabout, here take the second road on the left (SP71 - Vecchia Regina) for a few meters and then turn right into via Monti which then becomes via Besana, reaching the destination of the second stage: Villa Besana-Ciani.
The villa, which on one side overlooks via Besana and on the other the Riva di Cernobbio, built in the seventeenth century as the country house of the Londonio family, hosted Vincenzo Monti (1754-1828) greatest exponent of Italian neoclassicism.
Precisely in this landscape context, which between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was more wild and verdant, Vincenzo Monti sets about thirty lines of the poem Feroniade, begun in 1784 and published posthumously in 1832, dedicated to the daughters of the scholar and politician Carlo Giuseppe Londonio, then owner of the Villa Besana-Ciani. In the verses Monti imagines the daughters of Londonio intent on collecting violets:
- «Nunzia d'april, deh !, when for the hedges
- From the pleasant Cernobbio in the morning
- Isabella and Emilia, alme maidens,
- They make you prey and party, and you are blessed
- Go among the snow of virgin breasts
- New fragrances to buy, deh! movi,
- Mammoletta gentil, these words:
- In spring the first flower greets
- Cernobbio's roses ...»
In 1869 the villa was bought by the brothers Carlo and Enrico Besana, hence the current name, which made it a meeting point for Lombard patriots. The villa, still owned by the Besana family, has not undergone any particular structural changes over the years. The garden also maintains its original charm with imposing plane trees and beech trees.
Before leaving for the third stage, you can decide to join the variant that leads to discover two characteristic places of Cernobbio: the Riva and the Garden of the Valley. More details are available in the section dedicated to the variants.
Distance between second and third stage: just over 2 km, on foot about 25 minutes on a flat asphalted road.
Note: this distance can also be covered by car, from the Villa Erba car park located along the SP71 - Vecchia Regina, to the Villa Olmo car park located at the Lido di Villa Olmo.
3 - Villa del Grumello, Ugo Foscolo
To reach the third stage, you leave Villa Besana-Ciani behind you, take the road from which you arrived, but on the curve between via Besana and via Monti, take the pedestrian street on the left that leads to via Luigi Erba and then along via Luigi Erba in the opposite direction to that which leads to the lake. After a few meters you will find yourself on the roundabout of the SP71 - Vecchia Regina. Here you take the first road on the right and skirt the lake always straight ahead first along the SP71 and then along the road to Cernobbio. At the height of Villa Sucota, home of the Antonio Ratti Foundation and the Textile Museum, leave the main road and follow the path called Kilometer of knowledge (KM_C) along the side that runs along the lake, thus reaching its destination.
To mark the arrival at the third stage is the bust of Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827), leaning over Lake Como, as if to scrutinize and monitor its first basin. The bust is located in the park of the Villa del Grumello, one of the oldest villas on Lake Como that can be visited today. The original nucleus, located at a certain height with respect to the shore, dates back to the sixteenth century. In 1954 the villa with the park, the greenhouses and the guesthouse was donated toSant'Anna hospital by the last owners, the Celesia family, and became a retirement home. In 2006, the Villa del Grumello Association was established, which promoted its restoration and made it the seat of scientific and cultural initiatives, as well as making the gardens open to the public.
To find the link between the great poet Ugo Foscolo and this villa, it is necessary to recall the previous owners, the Giovio family, and in particular the count Giovanni Battista. Foscolo had an affair with Franceschina, the youngest of the count's daughters, to whom he dedicated some verses of the poem The Graces, in which he mentions the lake:
- «As when more gay Euro provokes
- on the dawn the quiet Lario, and at that whisper
- the helmsman sings… ».
Subsequently, with a letter dated "Borgo Vico 19 August 1809" Foscolo put an end to the relationship with Franceschina, and to her wedding dreams:
- "Finding myself one evening in Grumello, and looking at the lake, the hills and the house where I had first seen you, and thinking that I must soon leave them, my desire to always live there did not distinguish you from the places."
You are interested in stopping to visit the gardens and greenhouses that surround the main building. The villa, emptied of its furnishings transferred to the Civic Museum of Como, is now home to offices and conference / workshop rooms, and therefore cannot be visited. The gardens are open to the public from March to early November, every Sunday and public holidays from 10.00 to 18.00 (it is advisable to check the institution's website for updates on summer / winter timetables, and on special events that could make the villa and park not accessible). A refreshment point is also available inside the greenhouses of the park.
In the greenhouse of the Villa del Grumello there is one of the twelve Little Free Library where to exchange books.
Distance between third and fourth leg: just under 1 km, on foot about 10 minutes of paved road and paths of the park.
4 - Villa Olmo, Caninio Rufo
Leaving Villa del Grumello behind and continuing along the path Kilometer of Knowledge (KM_C) you arrive at the fourth stage of this path: Villa Olmo.
Second Giovanni Battista Giovio this is the abode described by Pliny the Younger, precursor of the myth of the holiday on Lake Como, in a famous letter, which is still translated in high schools, addressed to the poet Caninio Rufo:
- «How is Como, the city of your and my heart? What about the charming suburban estate? And that porch where it's always spring? What about the shadowy plane tree grove? And the canal with the [...] waters so pure? ».
- "Model and sculpt something that is forever yours"
is the exhortation that Pliny finally addresses to his friend,
- "Because all your other possessions will receive another master and another by lot after you."
Good advice that was not followed by Rufus since none of his works has come down to us, except through quotations, such as that of Pliny who attributes to him a poem dedicated to Trajan on the conquest of Dacia. Quote that earned him a bust on the facade of the classical high school in Como dedicated to Volta and located in via Cantù.
During the renovation of the Villa in 2015, a wall from the Roman era emerged in the garden, interpreted by someone as proof of the intuition of Giovanni Battista Giovio.
Before leaving Villa Olmo we recommend a tour of the park, reopened in spring 2018 following redevelopment works, and in particular a visit to the monumental trees including: a majestic cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani), a horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), some specimens of plane trees (Platanus occidentalis) centuries-old, a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) and a red beech (Fagus sylvatica).
The park is open from the beginning of April to the end of September every day from 7.00 to 23.00, and from the beginning of October to the end of March from 7.00 to 19.00. Following the restorations, the Villa is also open to the public from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10.00 to 18.00. Access is free (we recommend that you check the institution's website for updates on summer / winter timetables, and on special events that could make the Villa not accessible).
At the end of the visit, exit the gardens through the gate located at the opposite end of the entrance and take the promenade of the Villas of Borgo Vico, today called the Lino Gelpi promenade.
Distance between fourth and fifth stage: 500 m, on foot about 5 minutes along the paths of the park and the lakefront.
Note: The Bridge of the kilometer which passes over the road to Cernobbio connecting Villa del Grumello to Villa Olmo, is open every Sunday from the last Sunday of March to the beginning of November and on holidays from 10.00 to 19.00. In August the opening is extended to every day. If the bridge is closed, it is possible to reach Villa Olmo along the road to Cernobbio which runs along the lake in the direction of Como. After about 300 m of walking the road continues uphill, while it remains pedestrian along the lake. Taking the pedestrian street you arrive at the entrance to the gardens of Villa Olmo.
5 - Villa Gallia, Paolo Giovio
Leaving Villa Olmo behind, after about a kilometer of walk flanked on one side by the lake, and on the other by historic villas, you reach Villa Gallia. Dating back to the early seventeenth century, it is the oldest building of all those overlooking the promenade of the Villas.
Paolo Giovio (1483-1552), cardinal, but also physician and humanist, built his villa there in 1539 on what he believes were the ruins of a house that belonged to Pliny the Younger. Inside, he created the first museum in the world: the hospitable home, in fact, a collection of portraits of illustrious men that can also be admired in copies in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Among the numerous pieces, the most ancient and widespread portrait of Christopher Columbus stands out, today preserved at the Como Picture Gallery.
The original building, a bold construction stretching out over the lake, was precociously ruined by floods and demolished in 1619 by Marco Gallio to make room for the current Villa Gallia. Today it is still possible to admire the original residence in three paintings housed in the Pinacotenca and the Civic Museum of Como.
The contemporary poet and cardinal paid homage to the forerunner of the modern museum, Pietro Bembo, in the sonnet:
- «Giovio, that you collect the times and the works
- how many our age is worthy of light
- with so graceful and pilgrim ink
- what clear et charo et always you will live ... ".
The Villa remained the property of the Gallio family until 1772, and is now owned by the Province of Como. It is possible to admire the building and the gardens only from the outside.
You then leave Villa Gallia and continue along the promenade of the Villas of Borgo Vico towards Como.
Distance between the fifth and sixth stage: just under 1 km, on foot about 10 minutes along the city sidewalks
6 - Monument to the fallen, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
At the end of the walk of the Villas of Borgo Vico / walk Lino Gelpi you are in front of the Aero Club of Como. Continue along the lake along Viale Giovanni Puecher until you reach the War Memorial: an iconic form of white stone another 30 meters overlooking the lake, an unmistakable symbol of the skyline of the city of Como. Such a monument would not exist - in this form - if it were not for the poet and author of Futurist Manifesto (1909), Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.
Marinetti came to Como in 1930 to celebrate Antonio Sant'Elia, architect and poster father Futurist Architecture (1914). During his visit Marinetti imposed as a model for this monument a drawing representing a lighthouse tower made in colored pencils and watercolor of Sant'Elia. The project was then developed and completed by the master of Italian rationalism, the Como area Giuseppe Terragni.
The Monument was inaugurated on November 4, 1933 at the end of three years of construction work. Inside the Monument there is a 40-ton monolith, coming from Karst, on which the names of 650 Como's fallen in the First World War are engraved. Among these names are also sculpted that of Sant'Elia, killed at the front in 1916, and of Terragni, who died in 1943 returning from Russian campaign.
The founder of the Futurist movement (died in Bellagio in 1944), the architect of the New Town and the Lario will be celebrated in a poem and tears by the futurist aeropoet Ubaldo Serbo:
- «Death escapes he answers mockingly in the water in the water in the water of this lake Sant'Elia
- reflected dreams ... ».
The War Memorial is open to the public every Sunday from April to October. In the months of April, May, June, September and October, open from 15.00 to 18.00. In the months of July and August from 16.00 to 19.00. Access is allowed to a maximum of 15 people per shift. During football matches, opening times may vary (it is advisable to check the institution's website for updates). Admission € 4, free for children under 6.
Distance between sixth and seventh stage: 150 m, on foot about 1 minute along the lakefront.
7 - Volta Temple, Alessandro Volta
The next destination is located a few meters away and, given the grandeur, it is immediately visible from the War Memorial.
- "The battery is the fundamental basis of all modern inventions"
She said Albert Einstein in 1933 on the occasion of his visit to Volta Temple, a building that houses a scientific museum dedicated to the physicist from Como Alessandro Volta.
The construction in Palladian style, was designed by the architect Federico Frigerio, at the request and financing of the industrialist Francesco Somaini, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Volta's death, and the relative celebrations of 1927.The mausoleum houses a collection of scientific instruments that belonged to Volta who, in addition to having invented the battery in 1799 (hence the unit of measurement of the electric potential Volt), in 1776 he had also discovered methane, used in the Volta's lamp and in the electrophlogopneumatic gun, ancestors of gas lighting and lighters.
In addition to being a scientist also a poet, in a youthful text Volta describes the area where the temple dedicated to him was built today and where then young people flirted with their beautiful girls:
- «Giran costor around this and that
- maximum then in a certain district
- that Prato d'Orchi appeals to us today "
The orcs they were the mosquitoes attracted from the mouth of the stream Cosia that flows into the lake, now underground but then wide and open.
The Volta Temple is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10.00 to 18.00 (last admission at 17.30). Admission € 4 (full rate), € 2 (reduced rate), free for children under 6. It is advisable to check the website of the institution for updates on timetables, extraordinary openings and costs.
From the Volta Temple, take the large pedestrian alberto avenue that opens in front of the temple (viale Guglielmo Marconi) until you reach a pedestrian crossing. Here, continue straight along viale Felice Cavalloti up to the first intersection. If you take the road on the right (via Sant'Elia), at number 6 in the Rose Garden you will find the seventh one Little Free Library. To continue along the route you must instead take the road on the left, via Rubini, which leads to Piazza Volta. Cross piazza Volta until you reach via Domenico Fontana from the opposite side, under the arcades.
Distance between the seventh and eighth stage: 700 m, about 7 minutes on foot along the lakefront and the city sidewalks.
8 - Piazza Cavour, Hermann Hesse
Continuing along via Domenico Fontana you will come to the place of the eighth stage - Piazza Cavour -, discovering Hermann Hesse, 1946 Nobel Prize for Literature, and his 1913 text Walk on Lake Como, part of the collection of poems, essays and short stories From Italy:
- "Unlike Lugano and all the famous lakeside towns, Como turns its back on the lake and even in the pretty square of the port you don't get the tedious and disturbing sensation of sitting in the front row in front of an artfully created landscape"
Later in the text, Hesse criticizes the mountain, the last stage of this literary journey; the Art Nouveau villas that characterize the Municipality of Brunate appeared to the author:
- "Dreary pretentious buildings"
but if he had gone up on foot from Como to Brunate, along the mule track immersed in the woods, as suggested by the Lake Como Poetry Way, perhaps he would have changed his opinion.
In the same diary book he tells how the day after his arrival in Como, taking the boat for a lake trip, he cannot resist the charm of
- "Rock romance of steep villages"
and, arrived at the landing stage of the small town of I'll be back on the western shore of the lake does not get off the steamer, describing the scene:
- "It was a perfect picture, so enchanting that I didn't want to risk breaking its harmony".
Hesse concludes his boat trip in Moltrasio, a small village on the opposite shore of the lake.
Distance between eighth and ninth stage: 250 m, about 3 minutes on foot on city sidewalks.
9 - Cathedral (portal), Plinii
From piazza Cavour, leaving the lake behind, we take the street on the left, via Caio Plinio Secondo, which takes us directly to piazza del Duomo.
The Como Cathedral, which rises on the left with respect to the direction from which we arrive, is the third largest in Lombardy after Milan Cathedral and the Charterhouse of Pavia. The construction work began in 1396 and ended in 1744. The statues dedicated to the two Plinii, both born in Como in the Roman era, stand out on the facade. It is unique to find the figures of two pagans in such a prominent position on a religious building. At the time of the counter-reform, the bishop of Vercelli Giovanni Francesco Bonomi, in Como as an apostolic visitor proposed the removal of the two statues, the work of Thomas and Giacomo Rodari and datable to around 1480, but he had to desist in the face of firm opposition from the population.
Pliny the Elder is the author of what is commonly considered the first known encyclopedia, the Naturalis Historia is Pliny the Younger instead he left us one of the most famous letters of the classical age.
Distance between ninth and tenth stage: 50 m, about 1 minute on foot on city sidewalks.
10 - Cathedral (south facade), Cecilio
Looking at the portal, we turn to the right and turn left to admire the southern facade of the Duomo.
Among the various statutes that adorn it, we note that of a male figure with an open book in his hands: it is Cecilio, a Latin poet of the first century BC, and therefore the third pagan figure represented on the Duomo. Nothing is left of this author except a poem dedicated to him by Catullus who fears that he is being held in Como by a girl who has fallen in love with him after reading one of his poems dedicated to Cybele:
- "I want you to say, papyrus, / to my friend and sweet poet Cecilio, / to come to Verona, leaving
- Como and the banks of the Lario, / and listen to some reflections / from a friend of yours and mine.
- I pity you, more cultured girl / than Sappho: it is truly beautiful / Cecilio's beginning on the Great Mother.
Distance between 10th and 11th stage: 100 m, about 1 minute on foot on city sidewalks.
11 - Social Theater, Mary Shelley
Continuing along the south facade of the Duomo, we arrive in Piazza Verdi dominated on our right by the imposing bulk of the Social Theater. The theater built between 1813 and 1821 had the honor of hosting a season of the Scala in Milan when it was severely damaged by the bombing of the Second World War.
The Theater is also mentioned in the anecdotes of Mary Shelley in his book Strolling through Germany and Italy when he goes there to attend the Lucia of Lammermoor and can admire the velarium with the portrait of Pliny the Elder painted by Alessandro Sanquirico.
The frequentation of the Larian territories had offered the writer the cultural background for the most famous of her works, Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus. The references to Volta and Plinii are already found in the first chapter when Doctor Frankenstein is struck by the studies on electricity to the point of abandoning the readings of past naturalists, except "Pliny and Buffon, as useful as they are interesting". Furthermore, in the second edition of the novel, Mary Shelley changes the story of the scientist's wife-half-sister, making her the daughter of an Italian patriot imprisoned by the Austrians and adopted during a stay in Como.
At this point of the route you can choose between some variants. The basic route heads to the twelfth stage covering a couple of kilometers along the eastern lakefront and then returning here to the Teatro Sociale and continuing towards the entrance to the mule track that leads to Brunate.
A first alternative is to postpone the twelfth stage and then continue the itinerary to the end and then go to the twelfth stage after taking the downhill funicular from Brunate which takes you halfway back to the eastern lakefront.
A second variant, recommended for those who do not want to tackle the uphill mule track, is to go first to the thirteenth stage and then return to the Teatro Sociale and then head to the twelfth stage and on the way back take the uphill funicular to Brunate and from there continue the itinerary. More details are provided in the variant section.
Distance between eleventh and twelfth stage: about 2 km, about 20 minutes on foot on city sidewalks and lakeside.
Distance between eleventh and thirteenth stage: about 600 m, on foot about 5 minutes on the city sidewalks.
12 - Piazzetta Baratelli, August Strindberg
From the Teatro Sociale, crossing piazza verdi, we head to via Rodari which opens onto piazza Roma. On the opposite side of the square, you can follow the pedestrian path - a narrow passage - between the Hotel Terminus and the Palace Hotel. After crossing the Lungolario Trieste, we begin to skirt the lake keeping it to our left. After passing the marina, you reach Piazza De Gasperi where the valley station of the funicular which leads to Brunate. Continuing along the lakefront, we arrive at the viewpoint of Punta Geno where the homonymous villa now stands but once the place of the San Clemente city lazzaeretto as remembered by the Swedish writer August Strindberg in the story of his trip to Italy (From Italy). In an anecdote he writes about the boat trip from Como to Blevio:
- «We pass under some weeping willows in bud, near an English villa. There is a small pavilion on a spit of land. Through a window with a grating a bunch of curious faces look out, but it amazes me that they all have white heads. "
Of course, they are skulls: memory "Of the great plague", says the boatman.
Going further along the lakefront, we arrive in Piazzetta Baratelli where is an additional Little Free Library.
Distance between the twelfth and thirteenth stage: about 2.5 km, about 25 minutes on foot along the lakefront and the city sidewalks.
13 - Civic Museum, Giacomo Leopardi
From Piazzetta Baratelli we retrace our steps to the Teatro Sociale. Here, keeping the theater on the left, we take via Bellini. At the end of the street we turn right into via Indipendenza and then the first left into via Vittorio Emanuele which leads us to Piazza Medaglie d'Oro which overlooks the civic Museum.
Among the many possessions kept in the museum, there is an early manuscript of Giacomo Leopardi of 1816, Approach of death, found by Zanino Volta, grandson of Alexander, in a disused wing of the family building at no. 62 of via Volta, in 1862. It is assumed that the manuscript was given for reading to Pietro Giordani, then passed to Vincenzo Monti and then ended up in the hands of Volta. In 1825 Leopardi came to Como trying, unsuccessfully, to recover it.
The Museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10.00 to 18.00 (last admission at 17.30). Admission € 4 (full rate), € 2 (reduced rate), free for children under 6. It is advisable to check the institution's website for updates on timetables, extraordinary openings and costs.
Distance between the thirteenth and fourteenth stage: circa 2,5 km, a piedi circa 60 minuti dapprima su marciapiedi cittadini e poi in salita sulla mulattiera (dislivello di 450 m).
14 - Mulattiera Como-Brunate, Alda Merini
Dal Museo Civico il percorso riprende lungo via Balestra che ci conduce fuori dal perimetro delle mura medievali all'altezza della torre di San Vitale. Da qui superato il passaggio a livello si imbocca via Grossi che percorriamo nella sua interezza. Quando la strada curva e diventa via per Brunate si nota sulla sinistra una scalinata che segna l'inizio della mulattiera per Brunate. In prossimità delle scalette è posta una Little Free Library del percorso.
La mulattiera si arrampica in una rapida sucessione di tornanti verso l'eremo di San Donato. Prima di giungervi vi sono due bivi, al primo teniamo la sinistra al secondo la destra proseguendo sempre in salita.
L'eremo costruito nel XV secolo sul luogo di una precedente torre di avvistamento che divenne il campanile della chiesa, perse la sua funzionale originale di convento nel 1772. Pochi anni dopo fu venduto a privati e trasformato in abitazione: ancora oggi adibisce a tale uso.
Dall'eremo la mulattiera prosegue tagliando dapprima una strada asfaltata e giungendo poi nell'abitato di Brunate dove, poche decine di metri dopo esser diventata asfaltata, troviamo la Cappelletta della Sacra Famiglia.
La mulattiera, costruita nel 1817, è dedicata dal 2019 alla poetessa Alda Merini. I legami della letterata con il territorio sono da ricercarsi nelle sue origine. Il padre di Alda era un Brunatese figlio di conte disereditato per aver scelto di sposare una contadina del borgo, Maddalena Baserga, come la poetessa ricorda nell'incipit dell'autobiografia Reato di vita (1994):
- «Mio padre, un intellettuale molto raffinato figlio di un conte di Como e di una modesta contadina di Brunate, aveva tratti nobilissimi. Taciturno e modesto, [...] fu il primo maestro»
In onore della poetessa Brunate ospita dal 2011 un premio letterario a lei intitolato.
La Merini era affezionata al suo paese d'origine, e amava raccontare un aneddoto collegato alla funicolare: a una sua lamentazione ipocondriaca
- «Il mio cuore è attaccato a un filo»
un parente aveva risposto così:
- «Ma va' là, ché il tuo cuore è attaccato al cavo della funicolare!».
Distanza fra quattordicesima e quindicesima tappa: 300 m, a piedi circa 5 minuti tra le viuzze di Brunate.
15 - Parco Volta, Penčo Slavejkov
La mulattiera ci ha portato nell'abitato di Brunate: la strada asfaltata che ha preso il posto del selciato termina in via Volta. Attraversata la strada sulla destra c'è il percorso pedonale che conduce al comune e da lì a via Monti. Attraversata via Monti il percorso prosegue per una ventina di metri fino ad un bivio dove giriamo a sinistra. Da qui raggiungiamo in pochi passi piazza Bonacossa dove si trova anche la stazione di monte della funicolare che parte dal lungolago di Como.
Arrivando nella piazza sulla destra si nota facilmente la fontana al cui fianco è posta la breve scalinata che conduce al giardino pubblico Alessandro Volta. All'interno del giardino è presente il busto bronzeo del poeta bulgaro Penčo Slavejkov, ivi collocato nel 2007 dal governo bulgaro in occasione del 95° anniversario della morte del poeta che aveva scelto Brunate come dimora per gli ultimi anni della propria vita. Il poeta morì il 10 giugno del 1912, all'età di 46 anni, nella stanza numero 4 dell'Hotel Bellavista, l'edificio dal vivace colore giallo che si può notare dal parco stesso. In ricordo della presenza dell'illustre ospite è stata apposta sulla parete dell'edificio una targa con questi suoi versi:
- «Qui terminare i giorni a me conceda Iddio
- Solo e lontano dal caro suol natio.».
Distanza fra quindicesima e sedicesima tappa: 1,5 km, a piedi circa 25 minuti sulle vie di Brunate ed un tratto di mulattiera in salita (dislivello 150 m).
16 - Faro Voltiano
Per chiudere il percorso si esce dal parco passando alla sinistra dell'edificio della biblioteca. Il passaggio pedonale porta alla piazza della chiesa che va attraversata per imboccare via Beata Maddalena Albrici. Dopo pochi metri, al bivio con via al Zocc si tiene la destra sempre per via Beata Maddalena Albrici: qui inizia il tratto in salita. Alla fine della via si segue a sinistra in via Scalini. Poco dopo il bivio con via Varesello si attacca sulla destra di via Scalini la mulattiera per San Maurizio. La mulattiera sale verso San Maurizio tagliando più volte la strada carozzabile ricongiungedosi infine ad essa sulla piazza antistante la chiesa di San Maurizio.
Nella zona alberata al centro della piazza si trova l'ultima delle Little Free Library del percorso. Sulla piazza, tenendo la chiesa sulla destra, vediamo davanti a noi il proseguimento di via Scalini che conduce, dopo essere diventata pedonale, al Faro Voltiano. Affrontando i 143 gradini della scala a chiocciola interna si può ammirare dalla balconata della lanterna larga parte dell'arco alpino nonché avere una visione d'insieme dell'itinerario fatto da Cernobbio a qui.
Per gli orari di apertura del Faro Voltiano si veda la pagina web del gestore[link not working]. Ingresso euro 2 (tariffa intera), euro 1 (tariffa ridotta fino ai 18 anni).
Deviazioni
Cernobbio: la Riva e il Giardino della Valle
Giunti alla seconda tappa, Villa Besana Ciani, prima di dirigersi verso la terza ci si può concedere una visita a Cernobbio raggiungendo due Little Free Library.
Da Villa Besana Ciani, si prosegue lungo la via fino a raggiungere l'incrocio con via Garibaldi. Sulla destra si apre piazza Risorgimento caratterizzata dalla fontana di marmo e da cui si può godere di una vista panoramica su tutto il primo bacino del lago. Oggi la riva di Cernobbio è un'ampia promenade verdeggiante con alberi, panchine, locali, in fondo alla quale si trova l'imbarcadero in stile Libery (realizzato nel 1906) da cui partono i battelli alla scoperta del lago. Lungo la riva sorgono anche i monumenti a Garibaldi e ai Caduti. In piazza Risorgimento è posta una delle Little Free Library di Cernobbio.
Tornando in via Garibaldi e percorrendola fino in fondo si giunge alla via Vecchia Regina; svoltando a destra e percorrendola per 400 m si trova sulla sinistra l'imbocco di via Adda. Questa strada senza uscita conduce al Giardino della Valle, un orto botanico ricavato in un ex-discarica abusiva risanata: all'interno del giardino si trova un'altra Little Free Library.
Salita a Brunate con la funicolare
Si può raggiungere Brunate anche con la funicolare. La stazione di base delle funicolare si trova in piazza De Gasperi sul lungolago a circa metà strada del percorso che collega l'undicesima e la dodicesima tappa. Gli orari e i prezzi della funicolare sono consultabili sul site: la corsa dura circa 10 minuti, tuttavia in alta stagione va messa in conto la possibilità di dover fare la coda alla stazione dovendo aspettare la seconda o terza corsa prima di poter salire.
L'uscita dalla stazione di arrivo a Brunate si apre su piazza Alberto Bonacossa. Da qui diregendosi verso la cascatella artificiale su roccia che chiude la piazza a nord, si individuano facilmente i gradini che conducono al parco della biblioteca dove vi è il busto di Pencho Slavejkov, quindicesima tappa dell'itinerario.
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