Torno, of pre-Roman origins, boasts a glorious past thanks to its textile, wool and tapestries, which have made it a sought-after town by the nearby Como area. Today Torno presents a welcoming village with its small port, its many ancient villas and churches, without forgetting the presence on the territory of the massif avelli, rocks carved like sepulchres but absolutely cryptic as regards their dating.
Among the religious buildings stand out the Romanesque church of S.Tecla which stands with its bell tower right on the shore of the lake and inside which there are frescoes by Bartolomeo De Benzi, and the fourteenth-century Church of S. Giovanni Battista del Chiodo, with its twelfth-century bell tower in Romanesque style: inside, among marvelous frescoes, there is a precious relic, that is the nail belonging to the cross of Jesus and brought right in this small town of Como, according to the Christian tradition, from a archbishop after a crusade.
One of the most beautiful villas in Torno is the 16th century Villa Pliniana. Its name derives from the presence of a source of karst origin, mentioned even by Pliny the Younger and Leonardo Da Vinci. In this elegant residence have remained undisputed people of value such as Napoleon, Rossini, Foscolo, Lord Byron and Fogazzaro.
Equally interesting are Villa Taverna for its gardens and the small nineteenth-century Villa Plinianina built in Gothic-Venetian style and now home to a museum: the beauty of these elegant residences is that they are all mirrored on Lake Como.
Cover photo of Luca Casartelli via Wikimedia Commons
