Greenway del Lago di Como

The Greenway follows the western shore of Lake Como along parts of the ancient Via Regina, amid Romanesque churches, walled olive groves and lakeside villas.

Why it matters

The Greenway links a series of historic settlements on the western shore. It follows sections of the Antica Via Regina, the road that connected Como with Raetia in Roman times and remained the west shore's principal artery for centuries. Its route preserves the relationship between the lakeside villages and this long-standing corridor.

What to notice

Historic features along the Greenway include the bridge over the Torrente Pessetta and the bell tower of San Michele Arcangelo in Colonno; terraced plots and olive groves above Sala Comacina; the Romanesque church of Santi Giacomo e Filippo in Ossuccio; and Villa del Balbianello on the wooded Lavedo peninsula. Other landmarks include Lenno's medieval tower and baptistery, the church of Sant'Abbondio in Mezzegra, and the eighteenth-century Palazzo Brentano and seventeenth-century Palazzo Rosati.

Context and history

The western shore road the Greenway borrows is far older than the trail itself. The Via Regina ran along this coast when Milan was imperial capital, and its later medieval successor — the Strada Regina, documented under that name from 1187 — remained the principal land link for the lake's west-bank villages until a carriage road was completed only in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Greenway was laid out along the quiet stretches that modern traffic abandoned, which is why so many of its sections feel like a private museum of ordinary lakeside life: wash-houses, chapel shrines, walled orchards and boat landings still in daily use.

The communes along the Greenway maintain the trail along the historic corridor of the Via Regina, which connects the landscape and heritage of the western shore.