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Via Castello 4, 23801 Rossino di Calolziocorte (Lecco)
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Territory

A location that you'll fall in love with...

The terraces of Parco della Vigna (Vineyard Park) at Castello di Rossino overlook Lake Como (or Lario), which in 2014 was ranked as the most beautiful lake in the world by the online newspaper “The Huffington Post”, for its microclimate and its environment dotted with villas and villages. His unusual and complex geometry is often compared to an inverted “Y” or–as goes the popular local saying–that of a man: “Lake Como is shaped like a man, with a leg in Lecco and the other in Como, the nose in Domaso and the rear in Bellagio.”

 

Starting from Como and going through the busy towns of the west shore, there is Cernobbio, home to monumental homes such as Villa d’Este, Villa Erba and Villa Pizzo (the latter built in the Sixteenth century); after Laglio–known for the residence of actor George Clooney–Brenno is one of the oldest villages, remained virtually unchanged for over a century.

 

The only island formation of the lake is the island of Comacina, medieval independent stronghold which allied with the city of Milan during the ten-year war against Como (1118-1127): uninhabited today, it still retains the Seventeenth-century church of San Giovanni, the inn with restaurant (famous for stays of director Alfred Hitchcock) and the small rationalist constructions by architect Pietro Lingeri. The peninsula of Lavedo borders the Gulf of Venus and culminates in Villa Balbianello, assets of FAI (Italian Environment Fund), where many movie scenes were shot–“Piccolo Mondo Antico”, “Star Wars” and “Agent 007 – Casino Royale.”

At the northern edge of the lake, at the confluence of Mera and Adda rivers, it lies the natural reserve of Pian di Spagna, a flat area of ​​great interest, while a little further south lies the picturesque village of Corenno Plinio, famous for its sport activities related to sailing and windsurfing. At the center of the Lario, Lierna is called “the little pearl of Lake Como” with Riva Bianca, while in Varenna you can visit the eclectic Villa Monastery, which houses both a botanical garden and a house museum. From Varenna, the car ferry can reach Bellagio, located on the tip of the promontory that separates the three branches of the lake, known for its monumental villas (Villa Melzi and Villa Serbelloni, home of the Rockefeller Foundation), as well as the staircase full of shops which overlooks the home of Franz Liszt, where President Kennedy paid once a visit.

 

Going down to Como, in Nessus it’s worth mentioning the old houses clustered around the deep and picturesque gorge located at the mouth of the Tuf and Nosè valleys, and the medieval bridge of Civera. The mysterious Villa Pliniana in Torno is definitely worth a visit: its halls, in past centuries, were guests of Napoleon, Alessandro Manzoni, Ugo Foscolo, Stendhal, Byron, Giuseppe Verdi, Vincenzo Bellini and Rossini. Leonardo da Vinci studied the intermittent spring gushing from a rock, now enclosed in the inner courtyard of the building; Fogazzaro set his novel “Malombra” here, and Mario Soldati filmed here the eponymous movie.

There’s a boat service line: the longer cruises are headed to Como, with departures in the morning and return in the evening and a chance to stop in the selected locations. The service has been available for almost two centuries and it’s part of the very history of the territory.

Resegone: a mountain worth a visit

The proximity of Castello di Rossino to the Resegone, also known as Mount Serrada, makes it a perfect base for mountaineering enthusiasts and mountain hiking.

Quoted also by Alessandro Manzoni in “The Betrothed”, it is described in the opening of the novel: “The bank, formed by the deposit of three large mountain streams, descends from the bases of two contiguous mountains, the one called St. Martin, the other by a Lombard name, Resegone, from its long line of summits, which in truth give it the appearance of a saw; so that there is no one who would not at first sight, especially viewing it in front, from the ramparts of Milan that face the north, at once distinguish it in all that extensive range from other mountains of less name and more ordinary form.”

Many trails start from the towns of Brumano, Fuipiano and Morterone in the Bergamo province, and also famous mountaineering and skiing roads.

The Lecco side is characterized instead by several channels well known among fans of climbing, as well as numerous climbing routes, of which Erve–above the village of Rossino–is the starting point.

The vineyards of the upper lake

Castello di Rossino is located in a very popular area, not only for tourism but also for its vines. Entering the Upper Lake one can reach the lakeside town of Domaso, where an ambitious project to restore the local wine allowed to plant an ancient local white grape, the Verdesa, and involve other complementary grape varieties such as Sauvignon, Merlot, Sangiovese and Croatina. In this land the terraced vineyards, exposed to the mild climate and ventilated the western shore of Lake Como, produce grapes of recognized quality, which created the white Domasino IGT Terre Lariane, which is characterized by its freshness and delicate floral scents, and the red Domasino IGT Terre Lariane, with a bright ruby ​​color and a pleasant fragrance of red fruit.

Moving even norther, the Alpine region of Valtellina is famous for the variety of Nebbiolo (locally called Chiavennasca), from which wines like Valtellina Superiore DOCG are obtained, thanks to the local Sassella, Grumello, Inferno and Valgella. These wines, while maintaining very similar characteristics in their youth, age in a number of different subtle nuances and fragrant bouquet, due to the morphological nature of the land and exposure of the vineyards.

Of great importance, in 2009 throughout the Lake Como in the areas of Como and Lecco, it was the recognition “IGT Terre Lariane”, thanks to the will of companies “for the promotion and protection of IGT wines Terre Lariane. This consortium is still carrying out the work of identification of the land, historical research concerning the places that have already been known in the past for growing grapes, studies of soil, microclimate, air and water, as well as promoting various projects for the development of viticulture of IGT Terre Lariane.

The wine produced from the vineyards of Castello di Rossino has obtained the “IGT Terre Lariane” by the Consortium, thus becoming part of the program to optimize and valorize the area sorrounding Lake Como.

Lombardy region

Castello di Rossino, being located close to the major centers of Lombardy, is a perfect starting point for exploring its treasures. Often identified strictly as a region of economic vocation, it possesses nonetheless an artistic heritage of exceptional value by hosting the largest number of World Heritages protected by UNESCO in Italy, including:

– Da Vinci’s Cenacolo: the most popular representation of the Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci’s and Italian Renaissance’s masterpiece, dated 1494-1498. It’s preserved in the former refectory of the Renaissance convent adjacent to the sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in Milan. In 2013 it was the twelfth most visited Italian corporate site, with over 400,000 visitors.

To underline a curious coincidence: Leonardo da Vinci received in 1482–he had just arrived in Milan–a task by Ludovico il Moro to study a system that permitted to navigate from Lake Como to Milan. A solution to the problem is to be found in some of his drawings of the “Codex Atlanticus”, where you can recognize the stretch of rapids on the river Adda, near the sanctuary of Madonna della Rocchetta: during his long stay in Milan, this man of genius used to frequent these places regularly, and here he found inspiration for the background of “The Virgin of the Rocks”.

– Crespi d’Adda: hamlet of Capriate San Gervasio, near Bergamo, is home to a village worker, active in cotton textile arisen thanks to Cristoforo Benigno Crespi in 1875. Since 1995, “Crespi the workers’ settlement” has joined the list of UNESCO as one of the best preserved examples of industrial workers’ village that exist in the world.

– The rock carvings of Val Camonica: they are in the province of Brescia and constitute one of the largest collections of prehistoric petroglyphs in the world, as well as the first World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. So far, more than 140,000 figures have been recognized, but new discoveries have gradually increased the overall number of incisions, up to more than two hundred thousand.

– Sacro Monte del Rosario: Varese’s Sacro Monte is part of the group of the nine Sacred Mountains of Piedmont and Lombardy, included in 2003 in the UNESCO World Heritage List. It consists of fourteen chapels dedicated to the mysteries of the Rosary, which in turn lead to the sanctuary of Santa Maria del Monte, a place of pilgrimage since the Middle Ages. The latter serves as the fifteenth chapel, and it houses a neoclassical organ from 1831 by Luigi Maroni Biroldi.

– Sacro Monte della Beata Vergine del Soccorso: complex situated in Ossuccio, on the west shore of Lake Como, on a cliff 400 meters above sea level, facing Comacina island. The fourteen chapels that are part of the area, all built between 1635 and 1710, are in Baroque style and they lead to the shrine on the top, built in 1532, as a symbolic completion of the rosary. It is part of the group of the nine Sacred Mountains of Piedmont and Lombardy, included in 2003 in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

– Brescia and Castelseprio: listed in the serial site “Lombards in Italy: the places of power”, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2011. In Brescia one can find the preserved monastery of Santa Giulia with the Basilica of San Salvatore and the archaeological area of ​​the Roman Forum, while in Castelseprio, in the Varese province, there’s the area of ​​the castrum with the monastery of Torba, the church of Santa Maria Foris Portas with its frescoes and the ruins of the basilica of St. John the Evangelist.

– Mantua and Sabbioneta: the two cities, both united by the legacy of the Gonzaga family, who made them one of the main centers of the Italian and European Renaissance, have been included in 2008 in the World Heritage List of UNESCO.

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