In 1169, the Bishop Vidulf of Como put a curse on Isola Comacina, (Isola Comense or Cumana as it was known). ?No longer shall bells ring, no stone shall be put on stone, nobody shall be host, under pain of unnatural death.? Ever since, inhabitants of the island have been trying to exorcise the curse.

The "cursed" island of Lake Como is Isola Comacina, a small but historically dense strip of land near Ossuccio. The curse dates back to 1169, when the island—then a powerful pro-Byzantine military and religious stronghold—was razed to the ground by the people of Como and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Following the destruction, the Bishop of Como, Anselmo della Torre, famously placed a curse upon it, decreeing: "The bells will never ring again, stone will not be set upon stone, no one will ever host you again, on pain of violent death." For centuries, it remained abandoned until 1948, when a local restaurateur allegedly sought an "exorcism" for the curse via a fire ritual. Today, the tradition continues at the island’s famous restaurant, Locanda dell'Isola, where every meal ends with a "coffee ceremony" and a bell-ringing ritual designed to ward off the ancient malediction.