Actor George Clooney and his wife Amal arrived a few days ago on Lake Como, to spend their Italian vacation at Villa Oleandra in Laglio. Almost as if they wanted to welcome them, on the evening of Sunday 11 August 2024 the waters of the lake turned a deep red, as shown by the photos sent to Today.it by a reader.
The images were taken shortly after sunset along the panoramic road, on the Lecco shore, between the towns of Bellano and Dervio. Dozens of drivers and motorcyclists stopped to immortalize the spectacle. The sky and the surface of the Lario suddenly took on various shades of red, changing from minute to minute, witnesses say.
Many of the tourists passing by wondered if the phenomenon was due to a new solar magnetic storm, as had happened in Northern Italy between 10 and 11 May 2024. The colours were so intense, as can be seen from the photos we publish, that they also extended north of the Alpine chain, as if the sun was setting in the north (photo above).
The explanation for this spectacle, however, has nothing to do with the magnetic storms of our sun. It is in fact an optical phenomenon. The presence of a thick layer of clouds at high altitude has reflected the typical colors of the sunset on the lake. A perfect triangulation that has also projected into the sky the shadows of the peaks hidden by the mountain that acts as a curtain for the lake, as can be seen in the photo below. We do not know if George Clooney and Amal (on the right with friends, in the photo above published by QuiComo) also witnessed this spectacle. Certainly not from their villa. The western coast of the lake, where Laglio is located, in the province of Como, is in fact the first to be illuminated by daylight. But it is also the first to be darkened by the shadows of the evening.
