In the land of the lakes man's presence is millenary: highly interesting archaeological remains have been found in Golasecca, in the very ancient village of Varenna, on the foothills of the mounts of the Lago di Como, which as evidenced by the fortified caves of the "Buco del Piombo " were inhabited in pre-roman times.

Villas and castles
Already in the later Roman empire, on the shores of the lago Maggiore, towers rose and in medieval times the lake was the pivot of the Visconti's power, who built mighty castles. If Verbano was a land of fortresses, Lario, for its particular climate mildness, was since always a holiday resort. Magnificent neoclassical villas that emerge from rich and beautiful gardens distinguish its banks.

On the banks of the Lago di Como, Plinio the young owned a villas, apparently in Bellagio, Stendhal was fascinated by it, Goethe and Flaubert explored and described it, as did Ippolito Nievo and Franz Listz, not to mention Manzoni who probably gave its most famous description in the pages of the first historical novel of the Italian language "I Promessi Sposi".

However, another culture developed on the foothills of the Prealps, in the Lario triangle: alpine culture, made by the stratification of generations of men passing through these valleys, gently moulding nature. So it is that, next to the spontaneous vegetation made of cornels, beeches and hornbeam we find the olive tree along the coast and the chestnut at higher altitudes.

Extended between Milan and the great Prealpine lakes, Brianza is a landscape that, although altered by modernity and industries, retains the quiet of the hills and the sight of wonderful villas surrounded by parks.

The landscape is even more impressive if admired from the hill of Montevecchia, a delightful village of Brianza destination of happy picnics seeking matured caprini (soft goat cheese) or the famous dry white wine extolled by Carlo Porta, as well as religious destination to the 17^th century Santuario della Beata Vergine del Carmelo.

March.2003