Bellano

Bellano sits on the eastern shore of Lake Como where the Valsassina valley opens onto the water, its lanes pressed between the lake and the rising slopes. It is a town of artists and of water: a roaring gorge threaded by walkways at its heart, a celebrated literary tradition, and a quiet lakefront most visitors still pass by.

Why visit

Bellano’s trump card is the Orrido, a natural canyon cut by the Pioverna stream, explorable on suspended walkways pinned to the rock — one of the most striking natural sites on the entire lake. Around it lies a borgo with real depth: a Gothic parish church a step from the gorge entrance, a multimedia visitor centre in a frescoed tower thick with legend, an art museum built on a native painter’s donation, and an ethnographic museum up in the hills of Vendrogno. With a promenade, ferries and rail connections, it makes an understated alternative base to the lake’s busier western towns.

Character and history

Settlement here is ancient — Roman burials have been found — and a document of 905 already names the place as a curtis under the archdiocese of Milan. Power passed from the Torriani to the Visconti; the town won its own statutes in 1370, was sacked by Venetian troops in 1447, and later fell under the long lordship of the Sfondrati family. The nineteenth century industrialised it, most famously with the Cantoni cotton mill, whose brick chimneys still stand along the shore; when the mills faded, tourism and services took their place. In 2021 Bellano was admitted to the club of “I Borghi più belli d’Italia”, and since 2020 its territory has included the former municipality of Vendrogno, climbing into the mountains above.

The town’s artistic identity is recent but strong. The novelist Andrea Vitali set much of his affectionate, ironic fiction here, and the painter Giancarlo Vitali — who made his birthplace the central subject of his work — left a major collection of paintings and engravings to the town. Every 5 January, the Pesa Vegia festival, rooted in an old public weigh-house and more than four centuries of tradition, fills the streets with historical re-enactment, a bonfire on the pier and a parade of the Magi.

What to see

Begin at the Orrido di Bellano (Bellano Gorge), carved over roughly a million and a half years by the Pioverna and the pressures of the ancient Adda glacier. Gangways hang high above the water, past giant potholes and dark grottoes, now extended upstream to a tall cascade; the walkways are even lit in the evening, when the gorge takes on a different mood entirely.

At the entrance stands Ca’ del Diavol, the “Devil’s House”, a pentagonal three-storey tower frescoed with zodiac signs and mythological figures — its sinister nickname earned in local legend — today home to a multimedia exhibition on the area’s history and origins, and a shared ticket office with the gorge.

In the historic centre, the Church of Saints Nazaro and Celso rises beside the gorge on the main square: a late-Gothic building of 1348, a designated national monument, its facade banded in white and black marble and its interior retaining sixteenth-century frescoes. A short way off, the Pesa Vegia preserves the memory of the ancient public weighing house that gives the January festival its name.

Art-minded visitors should see the Giancarlo Vitali Museum in Palazzo Lorla, one of the town’s oldest buildings, where works hang thematically across five rooms ending in the luminous blue room of “la festa è finita”; his son Velasco painted the outdoor mural in the museum’s garden. Higher up in the Lezzeno hamlet, the Sanctuary of Lezzeno commemorates a miracle of 1688 and rewards the walk with lake views, while the MUU — Milk Museum and History of the Muggiasca in Vendrogno tells the alpine farming story of these uplands.

How to experience

Do the gorge early or late, when day visitors are few and the light in the canyon is at its best. Combine tickets cover the Orrido, Ca’ del Diavol and the museum — a natural half-day loop on foot. Afterward, walk the lakefront, swim where locals do, and take the panoramic stone stairways up toward Lezzeno for views back over the roofline. Buy Andrea Vitali’s novels in town and read the borgo through his eyes. In early January, plan around the Pesa Vegia: it is the town’s great communal night.

Practical planning

Bellano lies on the Lecco side of the lake, with its own railway station on the Milan–Tirano line, making it one of the easiest lake towns to reach by train. Ferries and boats connect along the eastern shore in season. The historic centre is compact and largely pedestrian, with steps and some steep lanes; the gorge walkways involve stairways and are not suitable for every mobility level — check accessibility with the operator. Opening hours for the Orrido and museum circuits vary through the year, so confirm on the official sites (orridobellano.eu, discoveringbellano.eu) before travelling. Summer weekends are busy; spring and autumn suit the town best.

Nearby places

Up the eastern shore, Colico guards the lake’s northern end at the mouth of the Adda, while Lierna offers quiet coves and beaches a short drive south. Mandello del Lario brings its own mix of lakefront and mountain, and the city of Lecco, at the lake’s south-eastern corner, anchors the province. The mountains of the Valsassina rise directly behind the town.