by Alessandro Manzoni). The steps called “Derta”, that lead from the neighbourhood of Guggiate to that of Suira, were built during the Spanish rule. In 1533 Francesco Sfondrati bought the feoff of Bellagio and for more than 200 years the Sfondrati family remained the most important reference point for Bellagio and its entire history together with the progress and happenings of the town were associated with this family. At Bellagio in this period, favoured by the ideal position for transport and trade, there flourished various small industries among which that for the production of candles was particularly notable and that for silk production together with its corollary, the breeding of silk worms and the cultivation of mulberry trees.
18th and 19th century
Bellagio in late 19th century.
With the death of Carlo Sfondrati in 1788, the feoff of Bellagio passed in the hands of the illustrious family of Serbelloni.
During the brief Napoleonic period the port of Bellagio assumed a military and strategic importance and a fact, apparently of secondary importance, was to guide the destiny of Bellagio for the two succeeding two centuries : the decision of Count Francesco Melzi d'Eril, Duke of Lodi and Vice President of the Cisalpine Republic to establish here his summer home. Count Melzi proceeded to build on the west bank, near Loppia a magnificent villa. That brought to the area the flower of the Milanese nobility and the promontory was transformed into a most elegant and refined court. Roads suitable for carriages were built, first of all to link the villas and the palaces and then towards the town centre and finally the provincial road Erba-Bellagio was completed. The fame of the lakeside town became known well outside the borders of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia: even the Emperor Francis I of Austria wished to visit it in 1816 and returned in 1825 to stay in the Villas Serbelloni, Trotti and Melzi.
In 1838 Bellagio
