Antica Strada Regina

Before the lakeside motor road, the Antica Strada Regina was the principal route along Lake Como's western shore. Built in the late Roman Empire, it served the region for well over a thousand years.

Why it matters

The Strada Regina was never a local path. It formed the lakeside arm of a wider system that tied Milan and Como to the Alpine passes of the Valchiavenna, moving soldiers, merchants and pilgrims between the Po Valley and transalpine Europe. Together with the lake's boat traffic and the Po river, it made up what historians describe as a genuine "Lake Como system" of routes. At Menaggio the road survives as a historic landscape, with the lake below and the rock of Sasso Rancio above.

What to notice

• The contrast between the modern State Road 340 along the west bank and the historic trace above it.
• Sasso Rancio, a steep and arid rock face above Nobiallo where the ancient route rises high above the water, a difficult passage for historic travellers.
• The old Ponte della Madonna at Nobiallo and the nearby Sanctuary of the Madonna della Pace, part of the historic landscape along the Regina. The Ponte di Caravaggio is another bridge associated with the route through Menaggio's territory.
• The elevated historic alignment above the lake.

Context and history

The road along the western shore took shape in the late period of the Roman Empire, when Como functioned as an outpost towards Raetia and Milan was an imperial capital. For centuries it served sailors, soldiers, merchants and local travellers; some sections carried vehicles, others were mule tracks, and a few were pedestrian only. The name came later: "Regina" is a contraction of "strada regia", the royal or principal road, first documented in that sense in 1187. Local tradition in the Menaggio area preferred a more glamorous origin story, crediting the Lombard queen Theodolinda with building it, but the Roman dating is what the sources support. In the Middle Ages the route took on a devotional role for pilgrims travelling towards Rome. It remained the principal way north until 1902, when the modern lakeside road displaced it.