Lake Como

For other uses, see Lake Como (disambiguation)}}}.

Map of Lake Como.

Lake Como (Lago di Como in Italian, also known as Lario) is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of 146 km², making it the third largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore. At 410 m deep it is one of the deepest lakes in Europe and the bottom of the lake is more than 200 m below sea-level.

Lake Como seen from the city of Como

Contents

1 Geography
2 Trivia
3 Lake's name
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Geography

The lake is shaped like an upside-down “Y” or like a back-to-front “λ”. The northern branch begins at the town of Colico, while the towns of Como and Lecco sit at the ends of the southwestern and southeastern branches respectively. The small towns of Bellagio, Menaggio and Varenna are situated at the intersection of the three branches of the lake: a triangular boat service operates between them.

Lake Como is fed in large part by the Adda River, which enters the lake near Colico and flows out at Lecco. This geological conformation makes the southwestern branch a dead end, and so Como, unlike Lecco, is often flooded.

The mountainouse pre-alpine territory between between the two southern arms of the lake—between Como, Bellagio and Lecco—is known as the Larian Triangle, or Triangolo lariano. The source of the river Lambro is here. At the centre of the triangle, the town of Canzo is the seat of the Comunità montana del Triangolo Lariano, an association of the 31 municipalities which represent the 71,000 inhabitants of the area.

Varenna.

Trivia

Due to its beauty, American singer-songwriter Gwen Stefani selected the lake as the filming location for the music video for her single "Cool" (2005). It was also featured used to represent planet Naboo in the film Naboo was often represented as being similar in appearance to Italy. Lake Como was used in both a scene were Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala were at a Lake Retreat hiding away and later in the same film was used in a scene were the aforementioned couple marry.. Also, actor/director/producer George Clooney bought a $7 million villa there in 2001. Matthew Bellamy from the rock band Muse also owns a home there.

Lake's name

The apparently 'real' Italian name for the lake is Lario, but this name is rarely used; it is usually called Lago di Como (literally "Lake of Como").
In guidebooks the lake may be variously described as "Lake Como", "Lake of Como", or "Como Lake"
While the town of Como is referred to as "Como", the lake itself is never referred to solely by this name. (This is not true of another lake in Italy, Lake Garda, where "Garda" may refer to either a town on its shores, or the lake).

Lake Como seen from Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo, near the centre of the lake.

References

External links