In Varenna a route from Villa Monastero to Vezio Castle

In Varenna a route from Villa Monastero to Vezio Castle.

Third and final appointment with Author's walks. Saturday 30 September at 14.30pm the Sentiero dei Sogni association organizes the creative walk Varenna year one thousand, as part of the project In the footsteps of the Plinii, promoted by the Province of Lecco and Villa Monastero, with the patronage of the National Committee for the celebrations of the Bimillennial of Pliny the Elder and the Municipality of Varenna.

The path from Villa Monastero will bring at the Vezio Castle, following in the footsteps of Queen Teodolinda and important authors who narrated Varenna's involvement in the ten-year war between Como and Milano (1118-1127) and its re-foundation by the exiles of the Comacina Island in 1169.

The initiative is part of the project activities Enhancement of the identity of the historic garden of Villa Monastero, financed byEuropean Union – NextGenerationEU with the Pnrr M1C3 Investment 2.3 Programs to enhance the identity of places: historic parks and gardens.

The event will start at 14.30pm on Saturday 30 September at Villa Monastero, meeting in the loggia after the ticket office. The route of approximately 2,5 km (plus return to the means of transport for the return) will end around 17.45pm at Vezio Castle. Approximately 750 meters will be on a mule track with a height difference of 158 metres; therefore, the walk is only suitable for those who have no problems facing climbs and descents and comfortable shoes, preferably trekking, are recommended.

“Among those rocks, the inhabitants of Isola Comacina were forced to found the colony of Varenna, dishonored by the betrayal perpetrated towards the Como people: they also brought with them their religious traditions, if it is true that they are the only ones, in that stretch of lake, to do not follow the Ambrosian rite. And the colonists, in that new location, built two fortresses: one on the right, near the Lario, the other on the top of a mountain, above the town, and capable of offering an observation point over the entire lake [ ….] The rocks of Varenna, bending towards the south, draw a soft curvature, and reveal to the view a marvelous gulf, in which there is a convent of nuns..." (Paolo Giovio, "The description of the Lario", 1537).

The itinerary will start from this quote contained in what is considered the first tourist-cultural guide of the Lario, written by the founder of the first museum in history, Paolo Giovio, whose family was among the many forced to leave the island after its destruction by the Como people in 1169 and move to Varenna. In reality it is at least a second foundation for Varenna, a place inhabited since proto-historic times, of which Giovio points out two landscape references that are symbols of the genius loci: the "nunnery convent", today Villa Monastero, and the "fortress on the top of the monte”, the Vezio Castle in the Perledo area. The itinerary aimed at capturing the remaining signs of those decisive events of almost a thousand years ago will be divided between these two monuments, both of medieval origin. Along the way you will also pass by the parish church of San Giorgio, where, according to tradition, the two figures painted on the columns on the sides of the altar are Pope Gregory the Great and Queen Theodelinda, to whom the popular opinion also attributes the building of the Vezio Castle.

The journey will be accompanied with readings by authors of the time, such as Paul Deacon (8th century), author of the “History of the Lombards” and of a poem “In praise of Lake Lario”, and theAnonymous Cuman (1118th century), author of the epic poem “The war of the Milanese against Como (1127-XNUMX)”, in which Varenna, aligned with Milano, was the scene of battles. We will also read subsequent authors who were fascinated by those places and those stories, such as lord Alfred Tennyson (19th century), or the one who held the title of "poet laureate" in Great Britain for the longest time.

Leads the way Pietro Berra, journalist and writer, the readings are entrusted to the actress Lorena Mantovanelli.