Spiaggia Di Lierna

This guide to the beach at Lierna, on Lake Como, follows the fishing families who once lined this shore with drying racks instead of towels, curing small lake shad called agoni in sun and wind for around ten days. It traces the process from an eighteen ninety-three painting by Vittore Grubicy De Dragon showing two fishermen at work here, through the salting, drying and tinning that turned the fish into missoltini, a preserve that kept a whole community fed through winters with no refrigeration. Stand at the waterline, once lined with those drying racks, and picture the whole trade a family's livelihood depended on.