A tour of the city of Como to discover historic shops

But how much charm is there in a historic shop?

They have been animating our cities for decades, they are part of our certainties, they are landmarks.

As of 2019, in Lombardy, 40 years of activity are required to be recognised as a ‘historic shop’. But the list includes shops or premises that have more than a hundred years behind them!

Their strength lies in the trust they have managed to build over time with their customers. Because at the end of the day, the difference between making a purchase in your local shop rather than on the Internet lies mainly there.

And trust is a serious thing.

If you have earned it, it means that you have worked well, that you certainly sell a product, but above all you put your face to that product and people appreciate it.

The value of advice is priceless.

And so I got to know some of these historic shops in Como.

Hi, I’m Marta, Local Blogger of Lake Como. Discover the lake with my tips!

List in hand, I went around the city looking for them, stopped to admire their shop windows and read their stories. The fascination they began to exert on me is immense.

Yes, because I already knew some of these shops, but I had never stopped to ‘notice’ how much tradition and passion there was in those places.

My tour of Como’s historic shop windows

I discovered that the Scotti toy shop, which I saw for years when I was going to high school, has been there since 1920 and its shop windows have made hundreds of children daydream for decades.

But also me.

Three floors that have nothing to envy in Toyland.

Then I went to photograph the beautiful window of the Bianchi Florist, a flower shop where I used to go with my grandmother as a child when we came to town.

She loved flowers, and I must have been seven or eight at the most, but every time she took me there I thought I was entering a flower garden!

The tradition of this business has been handed down for four generations, starting in 1918. A history of land surveyors who have made their love of flowers their life.

Then among the historic shops of Como there is the Panificio Beretta (a bakery) and its fragrances, which, for 70 years now, have been another certainty for those used to wandering the streets of this town.

For me, this shop has always meant at least two things: focaccia at lunchtime in my university days and the sweet Nuvola for Christmas.

In my search for Como’s historic shops, I found myself in front of the Pastificio Braglia window, walked in and got lost.

Lost in front of its burrata and pesto tortelloni, tortelli with radicchio and scamorza cheese, ravioloni with sausage or fondue and truffle. And I’m only naming the most particular ones!

The shop has been there since 1962. The management has changed in recent years, but the values and quality of the products not one iota. In a positive sense of course.

Not far from this pastificio is, since the early 1980s, the Libreria Plinio il Vecchio (a bookshop).

No doubt about it: if I’m looking for an illustrated book, that’s where I go and I know I’m going for sure!

I also like the fact that, cyclically, they organise exhibitions, particularly of photography.

My tour continued that day and led me to the discovery of several other very fascinating places, which I will tell you about.

The journey has just begun, both in the city and around the lake.

And I can’t wait to continue it!

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