Piazza Garibaldi

Lake Como


Piazza Garibaldi is roughly cobblestoned and it's plain from its time-warped nature that nothing much has changed here down the centuries. Many of the deep-grey, stone houses are still occupied, their inhabitants carefully tending garden plots that give the huddled hamlet flashes of bright colour.

The highlight of the square, the 14th-century Chiesa di Tommaso Beckett competes for attention with the neighbouring Castello degli Andreani, built around the same time. Frescoes inside the church were uncovered during restoration work in 1966. Two stout, crenellated towers stand guard over the castle, which is closed to visitors. A series of uneven stone stairways tumble between the tightly packed houses to the shoreline, one ending up at a tiny port (with space for nine motorboats and a family of ducks).