Castello di Rezzonico

This guide to Castello di Rezzonico on Lake Como opens with the 1758 conclave in which Carlo della Torre Rezzonico won enough votes to become Pope Clement, setting aside a family name that belongs to this hillside fortress. It traces that name back to the 1360s, when counts of the della Torre family raised these walls after losing control of Milan to their Visconti rivals, and follows one branch as it carried the Rezzonico name from this hamlet to Como, then to Venice's register of nobility by the 1680s. Two of the original gates still stand, entered the same way today.