CO'AIO, a province of Lombardy, Italy, on the border of Switzerland; 1049 sq.m.; pop. '71, 477,642. It is a mountainous region, with many small lakes and several rivers, the Adda and Ticino being the most important streams. The products are corn, wine, fruit, silk, etc.; and there are mines of copper, lead, and iron, and quarries of white marble. There are also manufactories of cloth, silk, and woolen goods, paper, fire arms, etc. The people are generally industrious and in good condition. This province was ceded to Italy by Austria in 1S59.
.00110, a city of Lombardy, northern Italy, beautifully situated nt the s.w. extremity of the lake of Como. It lies in a valley, surrounded by hills, clad with luxuriant gar dens, olive-plantations, and orange-groves, with here and there an old ruin cropping out. The city is surrounded by old walls flanked with towers, the gateways by which the walls are pierced being fine specimens of middle-age military architecture. Among the principal buildings of C. are the cathedral, built of marble, and containing some interesting pictures and monuments; the town-hall, also of marble, dating from the beginning of the 13th c.; and the churches of San Fedele and St. Abondio. There are
also many line mansions of the nobility in C. and its suburbs. The port of C., on the lake, is formed of two piers, each terminating in a square pavilion, from which magnifi cent views are obtained. The inhabitants—including the suburbs—number (1872) 24,350, and arc very industrious. The chief articles of manufacture are silk, cotton, woolens, yarn, and soap, the last article having a high reputation. By means of its port, C. car ries on extensive trade in the produce of the district with Switzerland. C., in the time of Pliny the younger, had attained to a high degree of prosperity as Conium. Novum. With the fall of tile Roman empire, C. passed out of sight until 1107, when it began to war with Milan, and iii the course of twenty years was utterly destroyed by its antago nist. It was rebuilt in 1155 by Frederick 13arbarossa, and remained a republic for two centuries, when it fell into the handS of the Viscontis, its history since that time being bound up with that of Milan.