Vezio castle towers over the village of Varenna, in the municipality of Perledo (Lecco Province), from a hillock at the bottom of Val d’Esino (Esino Valley). It was built around 1100 and in 1891 some graves dating back to Iron Age were discovered near the castle, while later, in 1956 also a few swords, helmets and iron arrows with triangular cusps emerged from the ground. The keep features a square shaped crenellation similar to that of the castle of Cly in Val d’Aosta. The motte shared the same destiny as the hamlet of Varenna, to which it was linked by walls stretching down as far as the lake to defend the hamlet, and both became a Papal Fief. Vezio Castle is the home of a falconer, at times dressed in a period costume, who takes care of a farm of birds of prey he looks after and trains. At present five raptors live on the farming: two Harris Hawks from Central and South America, a Ferruginous Hawk from USA and Canadian Rocky Mountains, a Barn Owl and an Eurasian Eagle Owl, both nocturnal birds of prey indigenous to Italy.