Voto:
That branch of Lake Como, which turns towards the south, nestled between two unbroken chains of mountains, shaped all by bays and inlets depending on how they jut out or retreat, almost suddenly constricts and takes on the course and shape of a river, between a promontory on the right and a wide shoreline on the other side; and the bridge that connects the two banks there seems to render this transformation even more perceptible to the eye, marking the point where the lake ends and the Adda begins, to once again take on the name of lake where the shores, once again moving apart, allow the water to spread and slow down into new bays and new inlets. The shoreline, formed by the deposition of three large streams, descends resting against two adjacent mountains, one called San Martino, the other, with its Lombard name, the Resegone, with its many peaks lined up, which indeed makes it resemble a saw: so much so that no one, upon first seeing it, provided they are looking from the front, for example from the walls of Milan that face north, does not quickly discern, by such a distinguishing mark, in that long and vast ridge, from the other mountains of more obscure names and more common shapes. For quite a distance, the shore rises with a slow and steady slope; then it breaks into hills and small valleys, into rises and plateaus, depending on the structure of the two mountains and the work of the waters. The farthest edge, cut by the mouths of the streams, is almost entirely gravel and pebbles; the rest consists of fields and vineyards, scattered with lands, villas, and farmhouses; in some places, woods that extend up the mountain. Lecco, the principal of those lands, and which gives its name to the territory, lies not far from the bridge, at the lake's edge, and indeed partly finds itself in the lake itself when it swells: a large village today, on its way to becoming a city. At the time when the events we are about to narrate took place, that village, already considerable, was also a castle, and thus had the honor of housing a commander and the advantage of having a stable garrison of Spanish soldiers, who taught modesty to the girls and women of the area, occasionally patted the shoulders of some husbands, some fathers; and, at the end of summer, never failed to spread out in the vineyards, to thin out the grapes and ease the toil of the harvest for the farmers. From one of those lands to another, from the heights to the shore, from one hill to another, roads and paths, more or less steep or flat, ran and still run; now and then sunken, buried between two walls, from where, looking up, you discern nothing but a piece of sky and some mountain peak; now and then elevated on open embankments: and from here the view spans out over more or less extensive vistas, but always rich and always somewhat new, depending on how different points capture more or less of the vast surrounding scene and according to how this or that part dominates or fades, emerges or disappears in turn. Here a piece, there another, where a long stretch of that vast and varied expanse of water; on this side lake, closed at the end or rather lost in a group, in a coming and going of mountains, and gradually more widened among other mountains that unfold, one by one, to the gaze, and which the water reflects upside down, with the little towns placed on the shores; on that side a river arm, then lake, then river again, which disappears in a glossy sinuous stretch even among the mountains that accompany it, sloping down gradually, and almost itself getting lost in the horizon. The very place from where you contemplate those varying spectacles offers you a spectacle from every side: the mountain on whose slopes you walk unfolds above you, around you, its peaks and ridges, distinct, elevated, mutable almost with every step, opening up and contouring what had previously seemed a single ridge, and appearing at the top what not long before represented itself on the coast: an
