Publisher's Synopsis
Lake Como. A top destination for today's tourism and travel industries. Everybody wants to come to visit Como and the lake that bears its name, have a taste of its small villages, its hamlets, the villas and mansions that spot its shores, the valleys that open along it, all among the major destinations for tourists, breath the air of romance and serendipity so many authors, artists, travelers have sung for so many centuries.
Yet, there was a time it was just the other way around: nobody ever wanted to come to it, to sail its waters. A time when there were no villas or mansions along its shores, and rather than a source of relaxation, entertainment, delight, romance, and serendipity, the lake was a source of worries, of threats for those living south of it. A time the lake did not even have a name. "The Lake", it was. Just "The Lake." This tale is set at those times, when Lake Como was just "The Lake", its water empty of sails, its shores empty of villas, mansions, people. When native people lived in only a bunch of small villages scattered on the hills south of the lake, their sight and their mind directed toward the plains, not the lake. A time when young people were not given a name: it was their duty to earn one, to win one. With their doings. This is the story of how a young man earned his own name, and how his destiny paired with that of a lake. A pair bound to last forever. The story of a town at its birth, of a community whose founding pillars sank deep into four different ethnic groups, engaged in finding a way to share life, to share the present, and build the future. This is the story of how the beauty and charm of Como and its lake began, hand in hand, their common path into history. Until they became "the world's most beautiful lake".