A silver lake on the silver screen

Regarded as one of the most beautiful lakes in Italy, Lombardy’s Lake Como has been dazzling visitors for centuries. With pristine glacial water, enchanting lakeside villas and a backdrop of snow-capped mountains, it’s a scene about as picture-perfect as you can get. Naturally, it’s hard to keep beauty like that a secret, and Lake Como has featured in many works of popular fiction, from novels to the big screen.

In literature, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway and Fyodor Dostoevsky have all been inspired to feature the lake as a setting in one of their novels. Alessandro Manzoni even began his novel The Betrothed with a detailed description of the Lake Como.

Villas alongside the lake have played home to villains in both Casino Royale, where James Bond takes on Mr.White, and Ocean’s Twelve, where infamous jewel thief The Night Fox meets his rival. More otherworldly, the lake doubled as part of the mysterious planet of Naboo in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

Back in the real world, Lake Como drew worldwide attention in 2014 when renowned human rights activist Amal Alamuddin married Hollywood star George Clooney on its banks. It’s an event that did wonders for tourism, if not peace and quiet for the locals.