Lake Como Winds: Breva and Tivano
The people of the Lake Como area love calling “their winds” by name. For this reason I would like to tell you a little about “Breva” and “Tivano”, the two most frequent winds, in the area where Hotel Posta is situated in Moltrasio.
The Como Lake has a mild climate all year round, and it is therefore ideal for vacations during the summer, but also during the colder periods. It’s surrounded by mountains slopes and valley that go all the way down to the shore, channeling the winds coming from each direction. The currents arrive to the lake as sincere friends, rough or sweet, bringing peace or chaos, following their nature, a nature that the locals have learned how to interpret: ask our “grandpa Italo” what happens when the Breva and the Tivano blow, and he will answer you with the knowledge and wisdom that only an old, local man could have obtained.
The Breva and the Tivano interact with the water on the Como Lake, with the fishermen, the boat builders, artist, travellers, with just about anyone who visit the area. The names of these two winds in the local dialect “Bréva and Tivàn” are among the most frequently used in songs and stories told by local musicians and poets, that have had the chance to study and observe the lake, like i.e. Davide Van De Sfroos, a singer famous in all of Italy for his folk music, who has dedicated a song to the winds. The Breva and the Tivano are gentle winds, circling around the lake area during most of the year.
The Tivano comes from the part of the lake takes on from the north, or more, from the north to the east, travelling down the mountains of Valtellina foreshadowing good weather. Periodic and regular, it comes to life early in the morning, punctual at six o’clock. Respectful and courteous during the warmest season, like those colder ones, it keeps you company during the quiet and fresh hours, with the heat of the sun arriving easy, not yet in full power. It leaves shortly after, between 10 and 11 o’clock, leaving you to navigate on the waves it has just stirred up.
Breva: the ever changing afternoon breeze
The Breva is maybe the most famous of all the winds, with a character ever changing, and the one that fits in the best, in that slightly melancholic fairy tale atmosphere familiar in the Lake Como area. Gently, around mid day, the Tivano leaves its place for Breva. She’s arriving from the opposite side, the south, and most of the time at a speed of seven, eight meters per second. She climbs up the lake currents, wrapping herself around everything and spreading over the surfaces. She starts out moderately, then she stops for a little while, and in the end she howls.
She’s difficult to interpret, she’s more or less always there, like a companion since forever. In fact, in the northern part of the lake area, they say that her intensity is measurable with the haze, the veil that precedes her, silently blanketing the waters. Different from the more steady Tivano, Breva presents herself under different disguises, and for this reason this wind has several names: Brévun (‘large Breva’) when she arrives at 12m per second, or, sometimes, when wind far stronger have ceased, a pleasant and comforting “Breva sutavent” (Breva under-wind). From the East, and the Lecco branch, comes the “Breva of the lakes”. One thing is for certain, Breva leaves the Como Lake area with the last rays of sun.
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