{"id":18547,"date":"2026-05-04T14:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T12:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.navigazionelaghi.it\/?p=18547"},"modified":"2026-05-04T14:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T12:58:07","slug":"exploring-lecco-sailing-in-the-footsteps-of-manzonis-the-betrothed-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.navigazionelaghi.it\/en\/2026\/05\/exploring-lecco-sailing-in-the-footsteps-of-manzonis-the-betrothed-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Lecco, sailing in the footsteps of Manzoni\u2019s The Betrothed novel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alessandro Manzoni lived in the town in his youth and was inspired by it for his famous novel<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The opening to The Betrothed is one of Italian literature\u2019s best known. In fact, Alessandro Manzoni wanted his novel to begin with a photo of the Lecco branch of Lake Como, \u2018with its bays and gulfs\u2019, the two mountains protecting it, San Martino and Resegone, and \u2018the many hills lined up which in actual fact, make it look like a saw.\u2019 There are so many references to the area in the novel that a full-blown tour of these is possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stages of the tour
<\/strong>It is in Lecco that Renzo and Lucia\u2019s trials and tribulations begin. You can get here on the water using boats setting off from Bellagio or by train. It\u2019s located on the Milan-Colico-Tirano line and can also be reached thanks to the special Trenord packages \u201cPrimo Bacino di Lecco\u201d and \u201cIl sentiero del Viandante,\u201d which, at a discounted price, allow you to arrive in Lecco by train and from there set off to discover the beauty of the lake by boat.

Once you get to Lecco, the Manzoni tour begins in the Pescarenico district – \u2018a small group of houses mainly inhabited by fisherfolk and draped here and there with nets of various types stretched out to dry\u2019, as Manzoni described it, where you can visit the Fra Cristoforo monastery which now contains polychrome wax compositions dating to the 16th century depicting scenes from the lives of Christ, the Virgin Mary and saints Francis and Chiara.

On the opposite side of the city you can visit the Acquate and Olate districts, rivals for the location of Lucia\u2019s house. Chiesa dei Santi Vitale e Valeria, probably Don Abbondio\u2019s parish, is here. The Zucco promontory, where Don Rodrigo lived, is also near here. The house was commissioned in the 16th century by the aristocratic Arrigoni di Introbio family and is now called Villa Guzzi. It was near here that the two bravi utter the novel\u2019s famous phrase to Don Abbondio \u2018this wedding will not happen, not tomorrow, not ever.\u2019

Visitors to Lecco should not miss out on a walk through Chiuso district, the location of the house Lucia is taken into when she escapes from the Innominato castle on its crag in nearby Vercurago. The last stage of the itinerary is the house belonging to the Manzoni family (Via Don Guanella, 1), where he spent his childhood, teenage years and youth, as he himself mentions in the introduction to Il Fermo e Lucia, the novel\u2019s first name.

The house is now a museum containing manuscripts, books and memorabilia belonging to the famous author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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The facade of what is believed to be Lucia\u2019s house in Lecco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lecco\u2019s lakeside promenade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Church of Saints Vitale and Valeria<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pescarenico, the only Lecco district specifically mentioned by Manzoni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alessandro Manzoni lived in the town in his youth and was inspired by it for his famous novel The opening to The Betrothed is one of Italian literature\u2019s best known. In fact, Alessandro Manzoni wanted his novel to begin with a photo of the Lecco branch of Lake Como, \u2018with its bays and gulfs\u2019, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":18545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"lago":[60],"class_list":["post-18547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-off-route","lago-lake-of-como"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.navigazionelaghi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.navigazionelaghi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.navigazionelaghi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.navigazionelaghi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.navigazionelaghi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18547"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.navigazionelaghi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18555,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.navigazionelaghi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18547\/revisions\/18555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.navigazionelaghi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.navigazionelaghi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.navigazionelaghi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.navigazionelaghi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18547"},{"taxonomy":"lago","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.navigazionelaghi.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lago?post=18547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}