Cernobbio is known all over the world for Villa d’Este, but the town has much more: a fishing village with half-timbered houses, a two-coloured church, a garden born from a dump, an Art Nouveau villa with the silkworm on its facades and a whole nineteenth-century industrial quarter. Path number 1 of Camminacittà, made with the Comune di Cernobbio and the Lombardy Regional Council, puts them in order, starting at the boat pier and ending at Villa Bernasconi.
The route at a glance
| Stage | Stretch | Length and time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | from the pier to piazza Belinzaghi | 500 m, 15 minutes |
| 2 | from the square to the Giardino della Valle | 500 m, 15 minutes |
| 3 | from the garden to the old boundary between three Comuni | 1.2 km, 25 minutes |
| 4 | from the old boundary to Villa Bernasconi | 900 m, 15 minutes |
For the total Camminacittà gives about 3.5 km and an hour and a half on foot, visiting time excluded, with an ascent of about 100 metres and a top altitude of 300. Adding up the four stages gives 3.1 km and 70 minutes: the difference is stated by the source and not explained. Stages 1 and 4 are urban and flat; stages 2 and 3 climb, with unpaved stretches and cobbled steps.
From the lake to the old village
You start from the Navigazione pier, covered by a Liberty canopy of iron and glass from 1906, which looks onto piazza Risorgimento, the «Riva» of Cernobbio. From here the eye runs over the villas, from the lido side as far as Villa d’Este and the tip of the Pizzo. You continue between the war memorial and the Garibaldi monument of 1907 to the church of San Vincenzo, the old parish church already mentioned at the end of the twelfth century and reworked between 1757 and 1775: it has a Baroque-style facade with light plaster and red terracotta decoration, which for Camminacittà is the only example of its kind on Lake Como.
A little further on you enter the old heart of the town, around piazza Castello, where a twelfth-century manuscript places the castrum, the old fortified village. On the square face the «Spanish houses», half-timbered homes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Along via XX Settembre you reach piazza Belinzaghi, with a large mural of the lake and its valleys from the 1920s and the entrance of Villa Belinzaghi, a neoclassical building of around 1860 wanted by Giulio Belinzaghi, who was mayor first of Cernobbio and then of Milan.
The climb: Santissimo Redentore and Giardino della Valle
After crossing via Regina you climb from via Monte Grappa. A flight of steps leads to the Viale della Rimembranza, an avenue of ginkgo trees with the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes of 1929, which comes out on piazza Don Marmori and in front of the Santissimo Redentore, the twentieth-century church that the former mayor Luigi Dell’Orto had built for his golden wedding. Past the hamlet of Sant’Andrea, the descent along via Adda leads into the little valley of the Garrovo stream, where the Giardino della Valle lies, a botanical garden with free entry born from a dump.
To Casnedo, with the view of Villa d’Este
From the exit on via Monte Santo the road becomes a steep mule track, with a long series of steps, that climbs to Casnedo and the church of San Nicola. Going down via Monte Grappa, at the first bend there is a viewpoint over the first basin of the lake: from here you see Villa d’Este, today a luxury hotel, with the fortifications on the side of the park that Countess Vittoria Peluso had built in the early nineteenth century to remember the victories won in Spain by her husband, the Napoleonic general Domenico Pino. Further on you glimpse the Pizzo promontory with Villa Pizzo.
The descent continues down a steep flight of ninety-four steps to Stimianico and then along via della Libertà, to a point on via Plinio where, until 1929, the boundaries of the three Comuni of Cernobbio, Piazza Santo Stefano and Rovenna met, later joined into one.
The silk citadel and Villa Bernasconi
The last part is flat and crosses the silk citadel, the quarter that grew around the Bernasconi mills: the terracotta chimney behind the Town Hall, the garden of the Luogo della Memoria, the workers’ houses and the kindergarten. At largo Luchino Visconti the entrances of Villa Gastel and Villa Erba face each other, and Villa Erba cannot be visited freely. Along via Cinque Giornate and the private via Bernasconi you arrive at Villa Bernasconi, the Art Nouveau museum that tells the story of the family and of silk; the route ends here.
To go further: Rovenna and the Bisbino
Camminacittà also proposes path number 2, a loop that starts and ends at the church of San Nicola a Casnedo and climbs to Rovenna: about 2.5 km and an hour and 40 minutes on foot, visiting time excluded, with about 150 metres of ascent and a top altitude of 450. In Rovenna there is the church of San Michele Arcangelo; above the village rises Monte Bisbino.
Practical information
- Start: the Navigazione pier at Cernobbio, reached by boat or bus; paid parking in via Erba. The finish, at Villa Bernasconi, is served by bus and boat (Camminacittà).
- Stages 2 and 3 have steps, steep and unpaved stretches; in some places you cross the road without a pedestrian crossing: care is needed.
- Villa Bernasconi: Friday to Monday 10-18, full ticket 10 euros (details on its page). The Giardino della Valle is always open and free. For the churches we have not found official hours; Villa Erba opens only for events and visits by appointment.
- Villa d’Este is a hotel: it is looked at from the viewpoint on via Monte Grappa.
- To reach Cernobbio by boat see the guide Getting to Lake Como.
Sources
- Camminacittà, Cernobbio, Path 1: Fishermen, queens and silk workers and its four stages; Path 2: Peasants, artists and notaries in Rovenna
- Museo Villa Bernasconi, official site and in-Lombardia, Villa Bernasconi
- UPEL Italia, Cittadella delle Tessiture Seriche Bernasconi
- FAI, I Luoghi del Cuore: Il Giardino della Valle
- The pages of the individual places on this site, with their own sources.