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It is one of the most famous and noble resorts, with beautiful noble residences and naturalistic-environmental features of remarkable charm. The great glaciations, with their imposing flows coming from Valtellina and Val Chiavenna, shaped the current Larian landscape: for at least four times the glaciers pushed south to Brianza. The site, frequented in prehistory, became a permanent settlement in Roman times, when it was the site, as an undocumented hypothesis would suggest, of a villa by Pliny the Younger.

After various vicissitudes related to the municipal period the succession of families, such as the Visconti, the Stanga, the Sfrondati and finally the Airoldi, built villas and palaces, creating parks that were restructured and expanded especially in the 17th century. XVIII, until in the 1800s Bellagio became one of the most famous holiday resorts in Europe. Bellagio has always been considered a destination not to be missed; the small streets with their craft shops are a must on the tours that accompany the boat tour in the other famous tourist centers of the lake such as Varenna, Menaggio, Tremezzo with Villa Carlotta, Lenno with Villa Balbianello. Bellagio has a temperate microclimate comparable to that of the Ligurian Riviera. Here you can visit Villa Melzi with its fantastic gardens overlooking the lake and the park of Villa Serbelloni, luxury hotel and study and convention center of the Rockefeller foundation, with its gardens with centuries-old and exotic plants, which occupy most of the Bellagio promontory.

Bellagio is at the head of the central promontory of the Lario; one of the most beautiful tourist destinations of all, not only of Lake Como, but of the whole world. Its beauty has been praised, since the sixteenth century, by Italian and foreign visitors. The fascination of Bellagio is first of all panoramic because from here you can see much of Lake Como. Add the splendid villas, the profuse luxuriance of trees and flowers, the picturesque stairways, the variety of walks, and you will understand how Bellagio deserves the nickname of pearl of Lake Como.

Bellagio was already inhabited in prehistoric times, a fortified village during the Middle Ages, a free commune in the war of ten years deployed against Como, it was then owned by the Visconti family then by Marchesino Stanga and Sfondrati. The parish church of San Giacomo was founded in the Romanesque period. Inside there are famous works: a Deposition of Jesus, by Perugino, a Madonna delle Grazie by Vincenzo Foppa and a Romanesque crucifix. The water transport of Bellagio is well organized with boats and ferries to reach the towns on the opposite shores of Lake Como.

Bellagio is an excellent starting point for various walks both along the shore of the lake and along the paths that connect the various hamlets, Suira, Visgnola, Vergonese, Pescallo. One of the most famous destinations is the San Primo Mount Park which is about 14 km away from Bellagio, not far from the Ghisallo where we find the Sanctuary and the Museum of cycling. Very many are the villas of Bellagio (besides Villa Melzi and Villa Serbelloni) deserve a mention: Villa Giulia, the Taverna-Trivulzio-Gerli (end 1700) with inside the ancient Romanesque church of Santa Maria di Loppia, the Trotti-Gerli (1751), the Buttafava-Marchesini and the Belmonte.