Given its proximity to the San Marco Pass, which connects the Valtellina with the Val Brembana, it played an important role in the past as a passage for trade and transport to and from northern Europe.
In 2007, it started a project to become a leader in sustainability, by involving the population in a participatory design process, presently labelled "Morbegno 2020". Morbegno is partnering with the international non-profit organization The Natural Step to design a vision of what the people living in Morbegno want to create in the long term, and choose the strategic path to move towards the vision from the present reality.
Morbegno has also been selected as a pilot city in the Di.Mo.Stra. project, by the Association of Italian Municipalities for the diffusion of Strategic Planning models. Finally, on November 21, 1966, it received the honorary title of town with a presidential decree.
