The house assumed to have been Lucia’s

Tradition identifies two different districts of Lecco as the location of the village of Renzo and Lucia, which can be visited while following the Manzonian itinerary: Acquate and Olate. 

In the Olate district, in Via Caldone, the house assumed to have been Lucia’s is found. Scholars of the topography of The Betrothed, starting from the descriptions in the novel, followed Alessandro Manzoni’s words and identified two houses: this house assumed to have been Lucia’s in the Olate district described as “the house on the main road that leads to the church” and another in the Acquate district, the house traditionally associated with Lucia. 

This house is a typical example of spontaneous Lecco architecture; the interior cannot be visited since it is a private home but the remains of an ancient fresco, a sixteenth-century Annunciation, can be admired on the main door. 

“Dominated by these thoughts, he passed in front of his house, which was in the middle of the village and, going past it, he went to Lucia’s house, which was at the end, or rather a little beyond. That little house had a small courtyard in front, which separated it from the road, and it was ringed by a small wall. Renzo entered the courtyard and heard a mixed and continuous hum from the room above. He imagined that they were friends and neighbours, come to court Lucia. (…) A little girl who was in the courtyard ran to meet him, shouting: – the groom! The groom! 

A. Manzoni, The Betrothed