Weekend Travel Guide: Lake Como, Italy 2022

Contributing Journey Editor Tracey Minkin shares an itinerary for 3 days of leisure in our favourite locations world wide. Discover extra journey inspiration in Weekend Hop.

In fact, George and Amal. However lengthy earlier than my favourite non-portmanteau’d star couple nurtured their privateness and inestimable fashion alongside the shoreline of Italy’s Lake Como, centuries of elites—from cardinals and composers to millionaires and film stars, and, sure, even James Bond—knew the facility of this peak-crowned lake to encourage us all to decorate higher, eat and drink higher, play higher, and finally reside higher.

And the unbelievable information is that it is attainable not solely to interrupt into what might appear to be the good membership ever, however do it over the course of a protracted weekend. If you will get to Milan, expensive mates, with out an excessive amount of stress or time, you are almost there. A redeye to Malpensa Airport and an hour or so by automotive to my favourite aspect of the slender, inverted-Y-shaped lake—the western shoreline that runs north from the city of Como—and also you’re sipping your first spritz (however absolutely not your final) by breakfast. And a wonderland of historic villas, excellent consuming, pleasant purchasing, jetting about in vaporinas (these clean-lined wood boats that epitomize Como life), and sure, extra iconically orange cocktails, awaits.

The place to Keep in Lake Como

Grand Resort Tremezzo

If I might create a palace lodge from complete material (and make that material in essentially the most divine orange), that is the palace lodge I might create. Stepping out this season with a grand refresh from the design hand of third-generation CEO Valentina De Santis, the family-owned Grand Hotel Tremezzo (Lake Como’s first palace lodge, circa 1910) has by no means been extra grand nor felt younger. And it is the proper basecamp for a weekend like this one.

Decide your catbird seat: among the many opulent jewel-toned sofas and chairs within the foyer and salon rooms?

On the awning-shaded restaurant terrace with its important Como view throughout to Bellagio and the Grigne mountains past? Or immersed within the lodge’s lush backyard park, together with the Flowers Pool with its peek-a-boo views down-lake?

Or down on Lake Como itself, on the newly reimagined, orange-fabulous T Seaside restaurant, loungers, and floating pool?

It is unimaginable to select a favourite spot, so give into breezy hours spent drifting from one perch to a different (together with a small, wonderful spa and boutique with a divinely targeted curation of luxuries, together with bespoke scarves from Como’s venerable silk home, Mantero). It is all an ideal, cinematic dream.

Passalacqua

One would assume that the De Santis household would relaxation on its splendid laurels on this Como nook, however no: They’ve simply launched Passalacqua, a brand new, impeccably trendy little sister to Tremezzo that opened this summer season down the lake close to the village of Moltrasio.

And what a little bit sister she is: This circa-1787 personal villa with fairly the visitor e-book (Napoleon Bonaparte, Winston Churchill, composer Vincenzo Bellini) and a shocking seven acres of terraced gardens has emerged from De Santis’s traditionally delicate, totally clever reimagining into an intimate boutique lodge. Now, 12 opulent suites occupy the baroque-style Villa with its unique frescoes; the Palazz stables maintain eight suites; and Casa Al Lago down on the lake’s edge holds 4 extra, every with a personal backyard.

(Do not even get me began concerning the handblown Murano glass chandeliers from Barovier & Toso, particularly the five-meter-tall showstopper within the Villa’s Sala della Musica.)

Is not the mathematics dreamy? Just a few nights grand-hotel fashion, a couple of nights villa-style, with a smattering of vaporina journeys hither and yon to soak up the sights. And talking of which…

What to Do in Lake Como

Go to Bellagio

Whether or not it is by way of one of many lodge’s classic boats or hopping the ultra-charming ferry, the primary tour have to be considered one of purchasing, strolling, consuming, and consuming in Bellagio, a picturesque enclave often known as the pearl of Lake Como. For luggage, sun shades, and scarves, don’t miss Pierangelo Masciadri’s idiosyncratically divine items at his Arte E Moda boutique simply up from the very walkable waterfront, then nip across the nook to the Lombard-Romanesque Basilica di San Giacomo. Then, make certain to deal with your self to gelato on the pink-walled Gelateria, the oldest (and there are lots of!) in Bellagio.

Tumble across the slim streets with a watch on buying extra silk scarves (by no means too many on this a part of Italy), scoring a bottle of locally distilled RIVO gin, and in the event you’re up for it, tour the gardens at Villa Melzi. However find time for a stroll out to Punta Spartivento, the spear tip of the peninsula that divides the lake’s two “legs.” Sure, the view is panoramic, however extra so La Punta, an aptly named and totally pleasant seafood restaurant, occupies the purpose. Keep for dinner and take the final boat house.

Tour Lake Como’s Villas

Como life is villa life, and woe to the customer who doesn’t tour no less than one Lake Como villa to get an inside take a look at the structure, inside design, and personal lives of its occupants. You probably have time for just one, make it Villa del Balbianello, a spectacular 18th-century mansion on a wooded promontory and occupied by an interesting lineage of characters (ask concerning the secret stairway for getaways each romantic and political), concluding with the dashing Italian climber and explorer Depend Guido Monzino. The terraced gardens and statuary are a knockout, the views chic, and the James Bond/On line casino Royale location-spotting a part of the enjoyment. Whilst you can attain the villa from the shore, an arrival by boat is way, way more romantic.

You probably have time for a second villa (and particularly in case you are staying at Grand Resort Tremezzo), scoot subsequent door for a go to to the divine late-Seventeenth-century Villa Carlotta, the place the botanical gardens and the museum are equally intoxicating.

Sip an Aperol Spritz

Now here is the sumptuous information: With the precise prosecco (and on Lake Como I’ve but to come across the improper prosecco), you’ll be able to pair Aperol with bubbles and sip your day away with essentially the most photogenically refreshing drink ever created. The larger the goblet, the extra enjoyable you are having. George and Amal, I really feel sure, would agree.