Orrido di Bellano. Bellano (

Comasco Comasco or Comasque is a dialect of Western Lombard language spoken in the city and suburbs of Como. It belongs to the Comasco-Lecchese group. Characteristics It shares similarities with Milanese Milanese (endonym in traditional orthog ...

: ) is a ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' (municipality) and small town on the eastern shore of

Lake Como Lake Como ( it, Lago di Como , ; lmo, label=Western Lombard, Lagh de Còmm , ''Cómm'' or ''Cùmm'' ), also known as Lario (; after the la, Larius Lacus), is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of , making it the thir ...

in the

Province of Lecco The Province of Lecco ( it, provincia di Lecco; Lecchese: ) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Lecco. As of 2017, the province had a population of 337,211 on a surface of divided into ...

in the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

region

Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...

, located at northern outlet of the

Valsassina 250px, The Valsassina plateau. Valsassina is a valley in the Alps of Lombardy, northern Italy, within the province of Lecco. It is included between the Grigne range from West, and the Bergamo Prealps which, in a half-circle stretching from North ...

. The town's main attraction is the '' Orrido'' ("

gorge A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

" or small canyon) which was formed through erosion by the river

Pioverna The Pioverna is a '' torrente'' (a stream whose flow is subject to a high level of seasonal variation) of Lombardy in northern Italy. The stream is born in the Grigna massif and flows north and west through the Valsassina, forming a gorge at Bel ...

. The erosion started 15 million years ago. The church in the city is called Santi Nazario e Celso (built in 1348) and is in the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style. Bellano is the location of most of the novels by local writer

Andrea Vitali Andrea Vitali (born 5 February 1956) is an Italian writer. Biography Vitali was born in Bellano, on the eastern shore of Lake Como. After graduating from medical college, he worked as an MD until 2014. He debuted as a writer in 1990, with the ...

and the birthplace of the 17th-century writer and poet

Sigismondo Boldoni Sigismondo Boldoni (5 July 1597 – 3 July 1630) was an Italian writer, philosopher, and physician. Boldoni was born in Bellano and died in Pavia from the plague shortly before his 33rd birthday. At the time of his death he held the principal chai ...

References

External links

*
Bellano - LarioOrientale.eu
Cities and towns in Lombardy Valsassina {{Lecco-geo-stub