Varenna

Varenna is a comune (municipality) on Lake Como in the Province of Lecco in Italy that borders the municipality of Lierna, located about 60 kilometres (37 mi) north of Milan.

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• In the past, on Lake Como, the rich only bought villas on the hills or high rocks of Lake Como, as Pliny did with Villa Commedia, in order not to lose sight and not to have flooding. The poor go to the shore to let the water lick your feet.
  • Giorgio Gandola, "Lake Como", Il Giornale, 7 March 2008
• No sound of wheels or hoof-beat breaks / The silence of the summer day, / As by the loveliest of all lakes / I while the idle hours away. / I pace the leafy colonnade / Where level branches of the plane / Above me weave a roof of shade / Impervious to the sun and rain. / At times a sudden rush of air / Flutters the lazy leaves o'erhead, / And gleams of sunshine toss and flare / Like torches down the path I tread. / By Somariva's garden gate / I make the marble stairs my seat, / And hear the water, as I wait, / Lapping the steps beneath my feet. / The undulation sinks and swells / Along the stony parapets, / And far away the floating bells / Tinkle upon the- fisher's nets. / Silent and slow, by tower and town / The freighted barges come and go, / Their pendent shadows gliding down / By town and tower submerged below. / The hills sweep upward from the shore / With villas scattered one by one / Upon their wooded spurs, and lower / Bellagio blazing in the sun. / And dimly seen, a tangled mass / Of walls and woods, of light and shade, / Stands beckoning up the Stelvio Pass / Varenna with its white cascade. / I ask myself, Is this a dream? / Will it all vanish into air-? / Is there a land of such supreme / And perfect beauty anywhere? / Sweel vision! Do not fade away; / Linger until my heart shall take / Into itself the summer day, / And all the, beauty of the lake. / Linger until upon my brain / Is stamped an image of the scene, / Then fade into the air again, / And be as if thou hadst not been.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Cadenabbia, 1874 [1], - In Longfellow’s words, the beauty of Lake Como is so unbelievably paradisiac that he’s worried it can fade away at any moment. Like all kinds of happiness in this life.
• Who that looks on these tawny hills radling calm day new-born, Who that sips mead from Como’s stills his fragrant, sun-bathed morn, Will, bating reverende, record Fair Como’s wrathful, ways, And wont only ungrateful, hoard The tale of her «bade days’? To day her ripples play bo-peep, And dimple at the rocks Lack in melodious mimicry A sounding billow mocks
  • Jean Carlyle Graham, [2], Po Italy. Odes et episodes, 1917, Ed. Stab. di arti Grafiche Lazzeri. Siena

• Avevamo già visto ulivi, castagni e gelsi, ma fino a questo momento il carattere del paesaggio era stato distintamente alpino. Qui cambia completamente. A Varenna, dove ci siamo fermati, l’hotel è vicino al lago. In primo piano vi è un giardino con alberi di limone e aranci, carichi di fiori e frutti, con grossi alberi di fico, con rose e aloe giganti. Non posso descrivere quanto mi sia sentita felice, quanto mi sia commossa, perché l’epiteto che più si adatta alla bellezza di questo paese è proprio “commovente".
  • We had seen olive, chestnut and mulberry trees before, but up until now the character of the landscape had been distinctly alpine. Here it changes completely. In Varenna, where we stopped, the hotel is near the lake. In the foreground is a garden with lemon and orange trees, laden with flowers and fruit, with large fig trees, with giant roses and aloes. I can't describe how happy I felt, how moved I was, because the epithet that best fits the beauty of this country is really "moving".
  • Fanny Mendelssohn, A Letter from Varenna, 1839
• Noialtri di stanza a Triebschen, abbiamo posato i nostri occhi su una villa sul lago nei pressi della località di Fiumelatte. Si chiama Villa Capuana...
  • The rest of us stationed in Tribschen, have laid our eyes on a villa on the lake near the town of Fiumelatte. It's called Villa Capuana...
    • Friedrich Nietzsche, a letter to Erwin Rohde, 1870
• Heisenberg in cattedra / spiegava il Principio di indeterminazione / a una platea di eletti (a Villa Monastero di Varenna). / In un angolo Fermi e Dirac / si guardarono un attimo sbigottiti / poi si scambiarono brevi formule / scritte sui palmi delle mani
  • Heisenberg in the chair / explained the Uncertainty Principle / to an audience of elected officials (at Villa Monastero in Varenna). / In a corner Fermi and Dirac / they looked at each other in amazement / then they exchanged brief formulas / written on the palms of their hands
    • Leonardo Sinisgalli

• Encyclopedic article on Varenna on Wikipedia