Villa Pliniana overlooks the lake in an isolated bay near the town of Torno. The façade is punctuated by four orders of windows; those on the main floor are surmounted by broken tympanums, those on the top floor with elegant square pilasters.
Villa Pliniana History
The building, built between 1574 and 1577 by Count Giovanni Anguissola, at the time governor of Como, owes its name two important Comeni characters of antiquity: Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger, uncle and nephew. Above all, we must have first studied the phenomenon of intermittence of the "Pliniana" spring, or even "Pluviana", which flows from the rocks above.
The most plausible hypothesis on the flow and the reflux of the source wants that the intermittence is due to the hydraulic principle of the siphon. The siphon, in hydrostatics, is a conduit that brings a liquid from a reservoir to another place lower down, first exceeding a higher altitude than the level of the tributary tank. It is believed, therefore, that there is a karst cave in communication with the Plinian and that this cave is filled through underground intake channels until it reaches a level that the water poured through the outlet channel then passing through the Pliniana, whose source at that moment it records the maximum of "full". When the cave has finished unloading at the Pliniana the period of "lean" begins until the cavity is filled again.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Pliniana passed for several owners, until in 1840 it was bought by Prince Emilio Barbiano of Belgiojoso d'Este, who conceived a complete remake of the decorations. After a daring escape from Paris that caused a scandal at court, between 1843 and 1851 Emilio lived in the villa in the company of his lover Anne-Marie Berthier, princess of Wagram and wife of the Duke of Plaisance.
Over the centuries the villa has hosted numerous personalities including monarchs, scientists, musicians, poets and writers: Napoleon, Alessandro Volta, Henri Beyle, Franz Liszt, Giacomo Puccini, Shelley, Ugo Foscolo, etc.
Since 1983, property of the Pliniare Real Estate Company, after a long and careful restoration, it is today offered as an exclusive location for stays in the sign of luxury and elegance, in one of the most enchanting frames in the world. Various suites of different sizes flanked by excellent services such as the SPA, welcome guests in a unique privacy regurgitation, surrounded by breathtaking scenery.