Museum
Giovio Museum
On Lake Como’s shore, 484 painted faces once stared back at visitors: writers, rulers, statesmen and dignitaries gathered not for a banquet, but for Paolo Giovio’s remarkably early public archive of fame.
Why it is worth the detour
A purpose-built Renaissance museum that housed Paolo Giovio’s extraordinary collection of 484 portraits of writers, rulers, statesmen, and military figures.
The Giovio Museum in Como is known for its historical significance as the original home of Paolo Giovio's collection of portraits of notable figures from the Renaissance. Although only 39 paintings remain, they are now housed in the Pinacoteca Comunale of Como.
The people behind this address
Documented connections, not celebrity trivia.
Paolo Giovio
Paolo Giovio united the perspectives of a physician, historian, and biographer to record the people and events of his age.
What else is close by
The nearest places we have written up, with straight-line distance from here.
250 m
Former Tintoria Subalpina
Silk out, hotel rooms in. This address once handled dyeing, printing and finishing; now much of it belongs to residences and the Hilton Lake Como—a serious career change.
250 m
Bruno Pessina Workers’ Houses and Factory Chimney
The chimney gives the game away. This stretch of Borgo Vico now blends into the city, but the brick survivor above you belonged to a silk works that employed as many as 160 people in the 1930s.
400 m
Villa Olmo
In 1927, the future set up shop around Villa Olmo. Temporary pavilions presented hydroelectric power, telephony, telegraphy, and silk, turning an aristocratic summer retreat into Como’s showcase for what came after Volta.
400 m
Casa Giuliani-Frigerio
Drawings and detailed instructions are being sent from military training to Como. Giuseppe Terragni is serving in the Italian army, yet the building in front of you is still taking shape — architecture conducted at a distance.
450 m
Canottieri Lario Clubhouse
Antonietta Sinigaglia commemorated her champion-rower son Giuseppe not with a statue, but with a clubhouse built on Como’s reclaimed shore—reportedly in just seven months.
500 m
Como War Memorial
Lake Como usually gets the soft-focus treatment: water, mountains, palaces. Then, on Via Giancarlo Puecher, a war memorial interrupts the postcard and changes the mood.
Walk it with the stories
This address is one stop among many. Our routes and quests link them into a walk that makes sense on the ground.