3 Crazy and Rough Love Stories Set on Lake Como That You’ll Hardly Forget
There are all types of love in this world,
but never the same love twice.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Global pandemic or not, Valentine's Day is back again this year with its load of sentimentalism.
Here at Lakeside, as every year for the occasion, we like to tell you some love anecdotes that have to do with… guess what? Our terrific Lake Como, obviously!
Image by CEllen via Wikimedia
But this time we’ll go beyond the usual stereotype of heartwarming-all fun and games love stories.
We’ll present you three stories somehow rather crazy, all without a proper happy ending: the story of a couple of lovers who chose Lake Como as a refuge to live their morbid passion of love, abandoning their own families in the name of lust; then, the story of a selfish and somewhat cynical artist who ended up having two different lovers on the two opposite shores of Lake Como; and finally the touching story of a quite extraordinary love, extremely tenacious beyond any scandal, which flourished on our lake but crumbled just away from its shores, as if for the end of a spell. Did we mention that Lake Como is so magical to create these sorts of spells, didn’t we?
Anne Berthier and Emilio di Beljoioso in Torno: when a romantic getaway tuned into a prison
Villa Pliniana is the set for this rough love story that opens our Valentine’s roundup.
The stunning villa is famous for one of the most talked-about love story ever: the one between Marie Anne Berthier, princess of Wagram, and Emilio from Belgiojoso, one of the most famous protagonists of Italian Risorgimento.
Image via www.serenohotels.com
Anne had been forced into marriage by her family. But when she met Belgiojoso, the attraction was immediate: one night they escaped to Villa Pliniana in Torno (owned by Emilio’s family) and they spent 8 years there, in total isolation.
You can image the scandal they created in those years (‘40s of 19th century) with their choice of devoting themselves to pleasure: consider that Anne even left her newborn child in France!
The lovers used to meet very few people at the villa: they did prefer to stay alone.
Many stories and rumors rose quite soon around those who were immediately called “Pliniana's lovers”. One above all: apparently in the evening, on the toll of midnight, the lovers used to wrap themselves naked together in a sheet to dive from the top of the loggia into the lake (how brave, you’ll say!). As a result, the villagers on the opposite shore thought they saw a ghost and were frightened; the daily repetition of the fact confirmed their belief.
Curious to hear the end of this hot-blooded story?
Well, eventually it was Anne who abandoned Emilio.
After 8 years, the spell broke: Anne began to feel the villa as a prison, missing her worldly life. She fled one afternoon in 1851, while Emilio was sleeping. The prince continued to live in the villa in the summer months, basking in the memories of his beloved until 1858, when he died.
Vincenzo Bellini: each coast of Lake Como a lover
Well, there’s no doubt that Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) has been one of the greatest composers of the world in the 19th century.
But seriously, can we talk a moment about his concept of love and relationships in general? Something dreadful, guys!
Basically Bellini looked romantic with all his lovers, but he was actually cold and calculating: he only aspired to the richest girls. Selfish, cynical, careerist: that was his hidden side emerging from the letters he wrote to his uncle Ferlito in Catania:
"The girl I’m looking for to marry must have a dowry of at least 200 or 300.000 francs, which would give me a certain economic independence for my work".
First the dowry, then the love… can this be called love by any chance?
But let's get to the role of Lake Como, a few years later: it’s here that Bellini made some real mess with his amorous scrapes.
At Villa Salterio (later Villa Hocevar), in Moltrasio, Bellini lived a long period of intense creativity which led him to compose the most famous arias of La Straniera and La Sonnambula. In that villa he started dating secretly - for five long years - Giuditta Cantù Turina, wife of the patron who was hosting him. Beautiful woman, extremely cultured, sensitive to the arts: Giuditta was struck by the meeting with Bellini. A passionate clandestine relationship began between the two.
However, around 1833, the relationship with Giuditta gradually faded due to the long distances of Bellini, who was always travelling around Europe together with the opera singer and muse Giuditta Pasta (1797-1865)… who , interestingly, had a magnificent villa in Blevio (Villa Roda, today transformed into Villa Roccabruna), right on the opposite coast of Moltrasio.
It didn't take Giuditta Turina long to understand that Vincenzo was cheating on her with Giuditta Pasta. The composer had an irresistible attraction for married women, apparently.
And so that dream also ended: in a few years Turina lost everything, was repudiated by her husband and abandoned by Bellini, who left Lake Como for settling in Paris.
Giuditta Pasta was the only one among his lovers who continued to be his friend. And guess what happened? Bellini even attempted to marry her sixteen year old daughter. He hadn’t stopped looking for a marriage that would have guaranteed him a good economic independence, which was essential to be able to continue playing music in Paris in those years.
He couldn’t accomplish his project: he died at just 34 years old.
Monument of Bellini in Moltrasio | © Lakeside
Liszt and Marie de Flavigny: a romantic stay in Bellagio that ended too soon
This is the story of Marie de Flavigny, born in 1805 from the Count of Flavigny, a French officer who emigrated at the time of the revolution.
Marie received a refined social, literary and artistic education; and in 1827 she married the Count d'Agoult, from whom she parted just a few years later.
Much admired in high society, she opened a salon in Paris, which was one of the most brilliant of that era, frequented by famous musicians like Rossini and Chopin. Those were the times of the great romantic passions: and that’s probably why Marie in 1835 irremediably fell head over heels with the Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886).
Liszt’s legendary hands - image via zenchopin.altervista.com
Romantically defying the scandal, Marie closed her home in Paris, and followed Liszt: she was with him for two years in Switzerland, then in Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome. This bright couple was really welcomed in all the literary salons of the time.
But how Lake Como fits in this story?
The couple arrived in Bellagio in 1837 and stayed for almost a year at Genazzini Hotel (today Hotel Metropole).
Hotel Metropole in Bellagio
Here they used to read Dante and Petrarch together; and Liszt followed the sonnets from Canzoniere with the rhythms of his melodies.
Those days for Liszt were also particularly inspiring: he wrote 12 Grandes Etudes pour le piano.
Lake Como therefore represented the apex of love and serenity for these two lovers, so much so that Liszt wrote about it:
“When you write the story of two happy lovers, set it on the shores of Lake Como. I don't know any district that is more clearly blessed by heaven ... in the midst of this friendly nature, man breathes freely; the harmony of his relations with it is not disturbed by gigantic proportions; he can love and enjoy, as he seems to be taking his share of universal happiness.”
"Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris" on 22 July 1838
After this stay in Bellagio, however, and after some painful contrasts, the couple broke up in 1839; and Marie returned to Paris, because we all know how tough can be to stay alone in places where we’ve been happy with someone.
Unlike the other love stories we’ve talked about, there’s nothing particularly crazy here: only the sad ordinariness of a love that, like a meteor, disappears after so much splendor. A splendor that in Bellagio, for Liszt and Marie, had meant beauty, life (one of their daughters was in fact born in Como), and art.
It seems a sad ending, but it’s not, in our view.
Love did ended, but Marie kept living: it was literature that saved her! In Paris she wrote several novels in which, according to critics, the romantic atmosphere in which Marie had lived alongside Liszt for so long is very clear. As if to say that the happiness we have felt does not disappear so easily: it can find new life in creativity and art. Another demonstration of how much culture can sometimes be a precious comfort in this life.
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