Lake Como

Lake Como is the southern lake of The Heart of Europe, reached from Lugano in about half an hour and from Zurich in about three hours by train through the Gotthard. It is the Italian counterpart to the Swiss lakes: villas built by Milanese and Lombard families since the Renaissance, gardens descending to the water, and an afternoon rhythm set by boats rather than roads.

The lake runs for about 46 kilometres between the Alps and the Lombard plain, dividing at Bellagio into the branches of Como and Lecco, and it is among the deepest lakes in Europe. Como, at its southern tip, keeps a cathedral, a walled centre and the silk industry that made its fortune; the town sits directly on the Swiss border at Chiasso.

The western shore holds the classic villa coast: Cernobbio and Moltrasio near Como, then Tremezzina, where Villa Carlotta and its gardens face Bellagio across the water and Villa del Balbianello stands on its wooded point at Lenno. Bellagio, at the meeting of the three branches, has Villa Melzi and the gardens of Villa Serbelloni. Public boats link the villages, and much of the lake is best seen from the water.

Spring is the season of the gardens, when azaleas and rhododendrons flower at Villa Carlotta and the lake is still quiet; late May brings the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, the classic-car show held in the hotel’s park. Summer is warm and busy, with swimming from the hotel lidos, boats and evening terraces; July and August are the fullest months.

September and October are mild and clear, the best months for walking above the lake and for seeing the villas without the crowds. Most of the lake’s grand hotels are seasonal, opening in spring and closing in November, so winter belongs to the towns, the mountain villages above the shore and the quieter rhythm of Como itself.

The great houses lie along the western shore and at Blevio. Villa d’Este at Cernobbio, a sixteenth-century cardinal’s residence that became a hotel in 1873, keeps a park of about ten hectares and its pool floating on the lake. Passalacqua at Moltrasio, a villa of the late eighteenth century opened as a hotel in 2022, has terraced gardens and only a small number of suites. Grand Hotel Tremezzo, opened in 1910 in the Art Nouveau style, faces Bellagio across the water, and Mandarin Oriental, Lago di Como occupies a wooded park on the quieter eastern shore at Blevio.

LVXE books Villa d’Este through LHW VITA, Passalacqua and Grand Hotel Tremezzo through Preferred Hotels Platinum, and Mandarin Oriental, Lago di Como through Mandarin Oriental Fan Club — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges each programme attaches to the stay. For other villas and houses around the lake, LVXE advises on the stay and arranges it directly with the hotel. Lake-facing rooms for June to September are best reserved well ahead, and a boat transfer between hotels is often quicker than the narrow shore road.