HOTEL RISI-COLICO
TRADIZIONE E PASSIONE

The history of the sleepy town of Colico begins here……

(Filippo II 12May1571)

…………..but it would be too long to recount all of it.

Our history is more recent. We are unable to establish exactly when the hotel was built, but research in notary archives and at the Como Land Registry has shown that it was between 1865 (Sale Deed)and 1875. These dates coincide with a period in which landing stages were built on the lake along the bank facing the hotel (1841-1873).

The farsighted founder of Hotel Risi was Giovanni Risi (1825-1897), born in Bogno, Switzerland, and whose father was thought to be Italian. It is believed that he began work following in his father’s footsteps repairing copper pots and kitchen utensils for a living.

It is very likely that the building where the hotel stands today was originally an inn, which was later turned into a hotel. The first mention of the hotel in fact was together with another three of the town’s historical hotels in the Guigoni tourist guide from 1890, in the “general guide to the sub Alpine lakes and Brianza”(Guide - photo)

Giovanni Risi had three daughters, Carolina, Amalia and Teresa, and in 1897 at the age of 72 he died in Colico.

Hisdeath certificatebears testimony to his profession as a hotelier.

On his death ownership of the hotel passed to his two daughters, Teresa, unmarried, and Amalia, married to Martino De Bernardi (Carolina died in 1875, the same year she was born). Amalia and Martino had four children, Fortunato, Egidio, Pierina and Carolina.

In 1920 the sisters signed an agreement to lease the hotel to their son and nephew, Fortunato De Bernardi, for 1,500.00 Lira a year.

Between 1920 and 1930 Fortunato and Pierina ran the hotel. Their mother, Amalia, died in 1924 and between 1927 and 1930 Ugo Lusardi (Pierina’s husband) bought the De Bernardi children’s shares in the hotel, as well as that of Teresa, thus becoming sole owner together with his wife Pierina.(Atto Acq.Quote - foto)

Ugo and Pierina had three children, Achille 1922, Renzo 1924 and Amalia 1926, who found themselves running the hotel in difficult times due to the historic events of the period and the premature death of their mother in 1940 from a serious illness. Moreover, during the war the hotel was requisitioned by the Germans, who used it as their head quarters.

Plans show that from its construction up until the 1950s the building remained more or less unaltered.(foto - foto - foto - foto)

When the war finished reconstruction and economic recovery meant that business picked up. (foto) Lusardi children began the first summary renovation work in the early 1950s and then later in the 1970s more radical renovation (foto - foto)The to meet the standards required by tourists, above all Swiss, German and English, all affectionados of our lake.

Achille Lusardi married Elide Palanconi and had a son, Ugo, in 1962, while Renzo married a German tourist (foto)on holiday in Colico, Reintrud Podbielski, and had a daughter, Pierina in 1964. Amalia did not get married but remained beside her brothers and sisters-in-law in the running of the family business.

During this period the hotel became a land mark for groups of tourists visiting the lake and an almost compulsory stop-over for holiday-makers heading for Valtellina thanks to the fame the restaurant had acquired for its local specialities made according to traditional family recipes.

For those who wish to sample these delicious specialities, Pierina still prepares them today with the same passion and care at the “La Padella” agritourism in Colico.(www.lapadella.net)

From 1st January 1987 to 1st December 2003 Hotel Risi encountered a general period of decline when it was leased out. It was a time when many hotels in the area were closed down to make way for building speculation, but Hotel Risi survived.

From 1980 to today five hotels have been closed down with a loss of 200 beds in the area.

Ugo and Pierina, Achille and Renzo’s children, bring us up to more recent times. In 2003, faced with the division of the family property, they signed an agreement by which Pierina and her mother became the sole owners of the hotel. Together with the family, they decided on the complete renovation of the hotel in order to meet the new safety regulations in force, but also to restore some of the old prestige to the family business which their ancestors had run with such passion.

In April 2004, after just four months, the renovation works were completed and the business was re-opened, this time under direct management and with the help of Pierina’s children, Claudia 1987, Stefania 1988 and Renzo 1991, the sixth generation and probable future owners of the hotel.

Approximately 140 years from the foundation of Hotel Risi, the names continue to change but the family and passion remain the same. The story continues………