Anfo

Anfo is its fortress. The stronghold stands sheer above Lake Idro and was built by the Republic of Venice between 1450 and 1490; in 1512 Valerio Paitone and Vincenzo Ronchi took it for the Serenissima. It is also the arms of the comune, but with a curious history: until a few years ago another set was going about, in use since the sixties, showing a military fortress with the date 1914 in Roman numerals; in 2001 it was replaced by today's, which does not depict the fortress as it was but the remains as they are now. The village, called Danf in dialect and Damphus in Latin, lies in the Valle Sabbia and is crossed by the Re di Anfo stream; the parish church is that of Saints Peter and Paul.

The second thing that sets Anfo apart from its neighbours is the wind. In winter the village is swept continuously by currents that keep it drier than Idro and Ponte Caffaro, which are a stone's throw away: frost forms far less here, and the minimum temperatures are the mildest on the lake, as much as three degrees above those of the two villages next door. Summer evenings have wind too — fifteen or twenty kilometres an hour — and the humidity stays low. It rains a good deal, more than thirteen hundred millimetres a year, with November the wettest month and January the driest, while snow is rare and falls lightly.