I spent the last few days wandering the ancient streets of Bellagio in northern Italy. Today this city exists mostly for tourism, but through history this has been a hard-nosed place of military strategy and commerce. Positioned at the tip of a peninsula on Lake Como, no water-bound trade could pass through this region without catching the watchful eye of they who occupied Bellagio.
There were the Celts, then the Romans. After the Roman Empire collapsed came the Lombardi and the Franks. Protective walls had to be erected at the city borders, since this newly fractured world had no great empire to ensure its safety.
More advanced industry gradually formed during the late medieval and early modern periods. In particular, the city became a center of silk production, whose traditional manufacturing process still lingers here today.
