Talk:Como

Hi all, as for the tourism officiale website, I would suggest the link to the English version www.visitcomo.eu/en As I can see now, you're redirected to www.visitcomo.eu (Italian version) from a link which is no longer valid (comotourism) Thanks! 87.5.116.165 (talk) 14:05, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

Celebrities moved from the Economy section

The relevant sentences are:

Many celebrities have homes on the shores of Lake Como, such as Matthew Bellamy, Madonna, George Clooney, Gianni Versace, and Sylvester Stallone. This has considerably heightened Como's international profile.

Apart from the surprise of Gianni Versace’s apparent resurrection, there seem to be several problems with this:

• none of them are claimed to live in the city;
• their homes on Lake Como seem insufficiently notable enough to warrant a mention in a single one of their articles;
• although they may have raised the international profile of the lake, it is really speculative that this has any bearing on the subject of the section, the city’s economy: really a source would be needed for that.

I have therefore moved the sentences here for further consideration. Ian Spackman (talk) 21:55, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi Ian - i noticed your recent changes to Como; i appreciate your work as always but I think these sentences should be moved back to the economy section; the city of Como (i live here) in the past two decades has lost many of its industries (many of them have been closed or moved away from the city center) and is now considered more of a tourist attraction of Milan's metropolitan area; thus the fact that many celebrities have bought homes here as well as the fact that Como Lake has been chosen by many hollywood directors for its scenery (Star Wars, Casino Royale etc.) has significantly increased Como's appeal as a tourist destination in northern Italy, especially overseas. So my proposal is to restore these sentences in the economic section (maybe rewrite them in a better fashion?) or at least paste them in the Como Lake article. --Itemirus^{Talk Page} 22:19, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

OK Itemerus: I’m always reassured when intelligent (and not over partisan) locals work on Wikipedia articles, and I am happy to leave this in your capable hands. What you say makes a great deal of sense in fact. But I do think that, in the case of the city of Como article, we need to reduce the number of celebrities listed, perhaps add a film or two, and increase the context. In fact you have provided it above, though mentioning which industries have closed or moved away would make it even better. (Has silk production, for instance, been displaced by cheap Chinese imports? Which other industries have dwindled?)

In the case of the Lago di Como article, my impression is that at an international level this became a highly fashionable place to visit and to stay during the nineteenth century. Caroline of Brunswick and Bartolomeo Pergami’s goings on in the Villa d’Este no doubt had something to do with this, as did the new attitude to mountain scenery associated with the The Sublime and (in England) with the Romantic poets. But you raise an equally important point with mention of Milan’s metropolitan area: Lake Como villas as pleasure places for Milan’s elite must have had a lot to do putting the lake on the fashionable map before the foreigners discovered it. But that’s all off the top of my head, I’m afraid, and perhaps quite wrong: I’d just like to feel that George Clooney’s presence wasn’t made to overwhelm the significance of Franz Liszt’s for instance. Ian Spackman (talk) 23:39, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the support Ian - i'll try and improve the section - could you proofread it afterwards? My english is not perfect (yet ;-) --Itemirus^{Talk Page} 08:44, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Done. There was nothing that really needed doing, but I can never quite leave a sentence alone. Ian Spackman (talk) 10:45, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for proofreading - it reads better now - i still lack that "touch" ;-) see you next time --Itemirus^{Talk Page} 11:14, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Was Como in the Holy Roman Empire or Not?

This is always an important question for that general part of Europe, even though that "empire" was dissolved in 1806. The great scientist of electricity Alessandro Volta was born in Como in 1745. Another one of the greats was Georg Simon Ohm who was born in Brandenburg, the Holy Roman Empire, in 1789. The key electrical units of the volt, the ohm, and the ampere are tied together by the essential equation V = IR of Ohm's Law. Andre-Marie Ampere was a Frenchman. It is interesting that there was an overlap in the existence of the HRE with that of the United States of America, though the HRE was abolished during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson ! 47.215.188.197 (talk) 07:14, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

AI generated tag

Hi -- I've tagged this as likely AI generated; the diff in question is this by @Itemirus. The edit summary reads "Fixing template errors," but that is misleading; there's a lot more. It also inserts a lot of new text and essay-style headers, most of which is almost certainly AI slop. (Example: Como's urban landscape is enriched by a diverse array of significant landmarks, reflecting its historical, artistic, and cultural heritage.)

I guess the first thing to ask is -- did you, or did you not, use AI to generate this and other edits? If so, what tool, and using what prompt, and what level of review did you do? Gnomingstuff (talk) 23:03, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

@Gnomingstuff I sometimes use Gemini 2.5 Pro, which I’ve refined through trial, error, and iteration. I always double-check its output for accuracy and reliability. Also, since I live in Como, I’m fairly knowledgeable. What’s your point?" Itemirus (talk) 02:37, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

I appreciate that you are checking the output; however, quotes like the one above go against our policies on neutral point of view and original research. Gnomingstuff (talk) 05:10, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

@Gnomingstuff How on earth "Como's urban landscape is enriched by a diverse array of significant landmarks, reflecting its historical, artistic, and cultural heritage" is against the policies for neutral point of view? it is a verifiable fact; are we really wasting time on this issue? Itemirus (talk) 19:04, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Because it is essentially puffery, per Wikipedia's manual of style. The sentence is expressing a positive and/or promotional point of view, such as landmarks "enriching" an area or "reflecting" an abstract concept rather than simply existing. If you disagree with Wikipedia's manual of style then Wikipedia may not be the best place to host your writing. Gnomingstuff (talk) 19:12, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

I don’t disagree with Wikipedia’s manual of style; I take issue with how some editors apply it arbitrarily to certain articles. If you're so concerned, then take notice: in Apple’s article it says: These moves elevated Apple to consistently be one of the world's most valuable brands since about 2010. Or in Coca-Cola’s article: …whose marketing tactics led Coca-Cola to its dominance of the global soft-drink market throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. What about New York City's article where it boldly states that New York City has been called both the world's premier financial and fintech center and the most economically powerful city in the world or New York City has been described as the cultural capital of the world.; maybe they deserve a maintenance template as well, what do you reckon? Itemirus (talk) 12:49, 25 August 2025 (UTC)