The villas of Lake Como are not a recent tourist phenomenon. They are what four centuries of Lombard aristocracy — and later half of Europe — did with the shoreline. The lake is narrow and deep, with mountains dropping straight into the water: flat ground is scarce and almost all of it faces the lake. Whoever could afford it took it.
The result is an unusual concentration. Within twenty kilometers you find a Franciscan convent turned into an eighteenth-century residence, a botanical garden with a hundred and fifty varieties of azalea, the home of a Princess of Wales that is now a hotel, and the English park of a Napoleonic vice-president. This guide runs geographically, from Cernobbio northward, and says for each one what you actually get to see — because in several cases the villa is private and only the garden is open.
The western shore: Cernobbio and Tremezzina
This is the shore with the most open villas, and also the busiest. The Regina state road is narrow, often effectively single-lane, and slow in high season. Many of these visits work better by boat.
Villa d'Este, Cernobbio
Built in 1568 for Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio, to a design attributed to Pellegrino Tibaldi. In 1815 it was bought by Caroline of Brunswick, Princess of Wales and estranged wife of the future George IV, who gave it its present name by claiming Este ancestry. It has been a hotel since 1873, which means the park is not freely open: you enter as a guest of the hotel or the restaurant. Behind the building stands the sixteenth-century nymphaeum with its pebble-mosaic staircase, one of the best preserved formal gardens on the lake.
Villa del Balbianello, Lenno
It sits on the tip of the Dosso di Lavedo, a promontory that pushes into the lake, and many people simply call it the most beautiful. Building began in 1787 for Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini on top of a Franciscan convent, whose two bell towers are still embedded in the structure. Its last owner was Guido Monzino, the explorer who led the first Italian ascent of Everest in 1973; on his death in 1988 he left the property to the FAI, Italy's national trust, along with the museum of his expeditions. The open loggia looking down both arms of the lake appeared in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and in Casino Royale. You arrive by boat from Lenno, or on foot along about a kilometer of shoreline path.
Villa Carlotta, Tremezzo
Built in the late seventeenth century by the marquis Giorgio Clerici, it later passed to Giovanni Battista Sommariva, who filled it with neoclassical sculpture. In 1843 Princess Marianne of Nassau bought it and gave it to her daughter Carlotta as a wedding present, which is where the name comes from. The botanical garden covers some eight hectares — about twenty acres — and owes its fame to more than a hundred and fifty varieties of azalea and rhododendron that flower between late April and May. Inside are Thorvaldsen's Triumph of Alexander frieze and a Cupid and Psyche executed by Canova's pupil Adamo Tadolini after the master's model.
Villa Olmo, Como
The closest to the city and the easiest to visit: neoclassical, begun in 1782 by Simone Cantoni for the Odescalchi family and now owned by the municipality. The park running down to the water is free to enter; the interior opens for exhibitions. It makes a good first stop if you arrive from Milan in the afternoon.
Bellagio, at the tip of the triangle
Bellagio sits exactly where the lake splits into its two arms, which explains why two important parks stand a few hundred meters apart. It is also where you should leave the car: the village is steep, built of staircases, and walked rather than driven.
Villa Melzi d'Eril
Built between 1808 and 1810 by Giocondo Albertolli for Francesco Melzi d'Eril, Duke of Lodi and vice-president of the Napoleonic Italian Republic. Its park was the first English-style garden on the lake: no symmetry, lawns running to the water, a Japanese pond, imported trees and a line of plane trees along the shore. The villa itself is private and cannot be visited; you enter the garden, the family chapel and the orangery, which holds the museum.
Villa Serbelloni
It stands on top of the promontory above the village and is today the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center, a residency for scholars. The park can only be seen on a guided tour, at fixed times and in limited numbers. Do not confuse it with the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, a different building down on the waterfront.
Varenna, on the eastern shore
The east shore is steeper and quieter: the walls of the Grigne drop sharply, the villages are small and the road often runs through tunnels. Varenna is where the ferries to Bellagio and Menaggio leave, and it is reachable by train from Milan — which makes it the simplest base for anyone not driving.
Villa Monastero
It began as a Cistercian convent in the twelfth century, was suppressed in 1567 and turned into a private residence. Its botanical garden is the unusual part: it runs lengthwise for about two kilometers along the shore, squeezed between water and rock, with cedars, palms, agaves and cypresses. Since 1953 the villa has hosted scientific conferences — in the summer of 1954 it held the international physics school where Enrico Fermi gave his last lectures, a few months before his death. The house museum keeps the furnishings of the last owning family.
Villa Cipressi
Next door to Villa Monastero and connected to it by a passage, it is now a hotel whose garden is open to visitors. The terraces dropping to the water are the reason to go in: they are the clearest example of how a garden gets built on a shore with no flat ground.
Planning the visit
The first decision is boat or car. The public boats link Como, Cernobbio, Lenno, Tremezzo, Bellagio, Varenna and Menaggio, and for the Tremezzina villas they are almost always the better choice: you skip the Regina road and arrive from the side these houses were designed to be seen from, which is the water. A car makes sense for covering several points in one day, or for climbing to the high roads, which are a different experience from the shoreline.
The second is the season. The gardens generally open between mid-March and early November and close for the winter; weekly closing days change from year to year, so check each villa's own site before you travel. The azaleas and rhododendrons, at Villa Carlotta and elsewhere, peak in the second half of April and in May — which is also the most crowded stretch of the year.
The third is how many to line up. Two villas in a day works well; three becomes a race. Balbianello in particular asks for time: the path from Lenno, the villa and the walk back take half a day on their own.
What stays with you
What these houses share is not a style — they run from the late Renaissance through neoclassicism to nineteenth-century romanticism — but a relationship with the water. All of them were built to be looked at from the lake and to look back at it: the important facades face the shore, the staircases descend to landing stages, the gardens are composed for a viewpoint that starts at water level. It is why seeing them from the road is always slightly disappointing, and seeing them from a boat is not.
Frequently asked questions
Which are the most beautiful villas on Lake Como?
Villa del Balbianello at Lenno, Villa Carlotta at Tremezzo, Villa d'Este at Cernobbio, Villa Melzi d'Eril at Bellagio and Villa Monastero at Varenna. In Como itself, the easiest to reach is Villa Olmo.
Can you visit all of them?
Not in the same way. Balbianello, Carlotta and Monastero are open to the public; at Villa Melzi you can see the garden, the chapel and the orangery but not the house; Villa d'Este is a hotel and you enter as a guest; Villa Serbelloni only on a guided tour.
How many villas can you see in a day?
Two work well; three become a race. Balbianello alone takes half a day, counting the path from Lenno, the villa and the walk back.
Is it better to travel by boat or by car?
By boat for the Tremezzina villas: you skip the Regina state road, which is narrow and slow in high season, and you arrive from the side these houses were designed to be seen from. A car makes sense for covering several points in one day or for climbing to the high roads.
When are the gardens open?
Generally between mid-March and early November; they close for the winter. Weekly closing days change from year to year, so check each villa's own site. Azaleas and rhododendrons flower in the second half of April and in May.
Seeing them with us
The days that go inside these villas, and along the roads that link them.
A full day built around the historic villas of the western shore, with a lakeside lunch stop.
The same day without driving: on the narrow Regina road and through the villages, this is the version that lets you look out of the window.
Every format of a day on the lake starting from the city, in three different versions.