Cernobbio
 Cernobbio    | |
|---|---|
 Villa d'Este on the Lake Como | |
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| Municipality in the Italian lakes region, between Milan and the Swiss border. Hosted the 1987 Bilderberg meeting. |
Cernobbio is a comune (municipality) in the province of Como, Lombardy, northern Italy. It is located about 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of Milan and about 2 kilometers northwest of Como, on the border with Switzerland and near the Lake Como.
Villa d'Este in Cernobbio was host to the 1987 Bilderberg meeting. The villa is also home to the annual Ambrosetti Forum.
The villa, originally Villa del Garovo, is originally a Renaissance patrician residence. Both the villa and the 25-acre park that surrounds it have been substantially modified with respect to the building originally intended as a summer residence for Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio. Since 1873, the complex has been used as a luxury hotel.
During the Second World War, Cernobbio became the area chosen for the quartering of the high command of the Third Reich as it was more sheltered from the air raids than Milan. Villa Erba became the hub of the military depot of the German military command, and the Regina Olga hotel transformed into the headquarters of the high officials of the German administration. Villa d'Este was used as a military hospital.
Ambrosetti Forum
- Full article: The European House - Ambrosetti
- Full article: The European House - Ambrosetti
Each year in September Ambrosetti think tank arranges a forum at Villa d’Este in Cernobbio. The event, held each year since 1975, is entitled Intelligence on the World, Europe, and Italy and brings together an array of speakers of the highest level from the world of politics, academia, government and business, from across the globe. Ambrosetti states "the secret of the event’s success lies in its exclusive nature"
The Rockefeller Bellagio Center
The Rockefeller foundation owns and operates the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in the nearby municipality of Bellagio. The Center comprises several buildings, spread across a 50-acre (200,000 m2) property, on the peninsula between lakes Como and Lecco in Northern Italy. The center is sometimes colloquially referred to as the Villa Serbelloni. The Villa is only one of the many buildings in which residents and conference participants are housed. The property was bequeathed to the Foundation in 1959 under the presidency of Dean Rusk (who was later to become U.S. President Kennedy's secretary of state).
The Bellagio Center operates both a conference center and a residency program.[1] The residency program is a highly competitive program to which scholars, artists, writers, musicians, scientists, policymakers and development professionals from around the world can apply to work on a project of their own choosing for a period of four weeks. The essence of the program is the synergy obtained by the interaction between people coming from the most diverse backgrounds.
Numerous Nobel laureates, Pulitzer winners, National Book Award recipients, Prince Mahidol Award winners and MacArthur fellows, as well as several acting and former heads of State and Government, have been in residence at Bellagio. During the Cold War is was a junket for rewarding authors and journalists who were witting or unwitting part of the secret Cultural Cold War.
The Center has served as backdrop for a number initiatives, from meetings that led to the Green Revolution to the Global AIDS vaccine initiative.
Event
| Event | Description |
|---|---|
| Bilderberg/1987 | 35th Bilderberg, in Italy, 106 participants |
