It was also the abode of many important politicians, art and literature characters, including Silvio Pellico, Giovanni Berchet, Giuseppe Giusti, Arnold Böcklin, Luchino Visconti and Alessandro Manzoni: the first Italian novelist who changed the history of Italian literature with its novel set on Lake Como. The Villa has been the scene of many important events in the history of Italy. Two years later, he began the conversion of the monastery into the Villa we know. Its property was taken over by Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini in 1785. Since the 13th century, on the Lavedo peninsula there was a monastery of Franciscan friars. This Villa is composed by a structure of two splendid buildings, of which it is possible to visit the finely furnished rooms, surrounded by a magnificent garden that continues on large terraces directly on the lake, built to have a 270° view of the surrounding landscape. Villa del Balbianello is probably the most beautiful and most famous villa of Lake Como, with its privileged location right on the tip of the Lavedo Peninsula (also known as the “Penisola del Balbianello”).
