Lecco

Lecco sits where Lake Como narrows into the Adda river, ringed by mountains whose most famous silhouette has jagged teeth. It is a real, working Lombard city — elegant arcades, civic museums, a neoclassical theatre — forever entwined with Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed, and a base where alpine trails and lake shores begin almost at the station steps.

Why visit

Most visitors know Lecco’s skyline before they know its name: the saw-blade crest of Mount Resegone presides over the southern arm of Lake Como, and the city spreads on the flat where the lake gives way to the river. What surprises people is how much is packed into a walkable centre. There are medieval survivals, a tower, an arcaded piazza; there are museums of painting, natural history and mountaineering; and there is the literary geography of Italy’s greatest historical novel, whose characters were given the streets, villages and chapels of this very shoreline.

The city’s tourism promoters frame it exactly right: lake and mountains in a single frame, with beaches on the Lecco branch, the cable car to Piani d’Erna for instant altitude, and the Grigne massif — guarded by the legendary climbers of the Ragni di Lecco — at the head of the valley.

Character and history

Lecco grew where the Azzone Visconti Bridge crossed the Adda, a medieval stone crossing that still carries walkers between the two banks and remains the city’s symbolic centre of gravity. Under the Visconti lords of Milan it gained castle walls and towers; fragments survive, including the fourteenth-century Viscontea Tower with its defensive ditch, and the medieval wall walk in the old centre.

Its lasting fame, though, is literary. Alessandro Manzoni spent his childhood in the Villa Manzoni at Caleotto and set key episodes of The Betrothed here and in the villages above: the fisherman’s quarter of Pescarenico with its Capuchin convent, the hamlets of Acquate and Chiuso, the church where the timid curate Don Abbondio was to have married Renzo and Lucia. Today a marked Manzonian itinerary strings these places together, and the city’s house museum at Villa Manzoni interprets the novelist’s world.

The nineteenth and twentieth centuries added industry — silk, mechanics, iron — and with it a serious civic culture: an ornate theatre, picture galleries, and a mountaineering tradition that made Lecco a capital of Italian alpinism. The city celebrates that heritage in its museums of art and in the mountaineering collection at Palazzo delle Paure, once the customs house facing the lakefront.

What to see

Begin on the lakefront at Piazza Manzoni and Monument to Alessandro Manzoni, then take in the basilica of Basilica of San Nicolò and its extraordinary neighbour, the San Nicolò Bell Tower (Il Matitone), the slender tower that doubles as the city’s emblem and viewing platform. Cross the Azzone Visconti Bridge into Pescarenico, the old fishermen’s quarter, where the Church and convent of Fra’ Cristoforo (San Materno e Lucia) recalls the novel’s good friar.

Museum-goers should see Villa Manzoni and Manzoniano Museum, Palazzo delle Paure with its art gallery and mountaineering exhibits, and the Palazzo Belgiojoso (Civic Museums). The literary trail continues uphill to Traditional house of Lucia (Acquate), Don Rodrigo’s Palace and the Manzonian Itinerary. For the mountains, ride the Lecco-Piani d’Erna Cable Car onto the shoulder of Mount Resegone; quieter corners include the Teatro della Società, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Victory, and the Monumental Cemetery of Lecco.

How to experience

Give the city a full day on foot: lakefront, basilica, tower, museums, then the bridge and Pescarenico, ending with dinner in the fishermen’s quarter. Devote a second morning to the Manzonian trail with a good map — the sites are scattered through ordinary neighbourhoods, which is part of the pleasure. Take the cable car up on the first clear day; the Piani d’Erna meadows have easy panoramic walks and a via ferrata for the sure-footed. Kayaks can be rented on the lake, and the outfitters of the Ragni di Lecco tradition offer guided climbs. For schedules of the tower, museums and cable car, consult the official city tourism portal, since seasonal openings vary.

Practical planning

Lecco is under an hour from Milan by regional train and well connected to Bergamo and Sondrio; the station sits conveniently at the foot of the old town. The city works well as a car-free base, with buses and boats reaching the lakeside villages of the branch; drivers should note that the lakefront road is slow in season. Spring and autumn are ideal for city and trail; summer brings lake swimming and long evenings, winter has clear mountain air and easy day trips to ski country.

Nearby places

Along the same shore and valley, several towns make easy excursions: Colico at the northern end of the lake with its abbey and forts, Bellano with its ravine-orrido and lakeside walks, Lierna, whose Riva Bianca is one of the branch’s loveliest beaches, and Mandello del Lario, home of the Moto Guzzi museum, beneath the Grigne.