Signature Luxury Travel & Style
ITALIAN INDULGENCE
Uncover why Lake Como and Milan are two spots all luxury-seekers need to experience.
An early morning mist swirls atop Lake Como. From my table on the Sala Regina terrace of Grand Hotel Tremezzo, it seems as if this destination hasn’t changed since wealthy cardinals and Milanese nobles built their Palladian summer villas on its shore. Each terraced garden glows with late-season colour, tumbling into the obscured waters of the lake.
As I sip at my rich Italian coffee, however, the water undergoes a metamorphosis. The mist vanishes, the surface gleams silver for a moment then settles into its bright hypnotic blue. Like so many before me, I fall under its spell before I have even finished my espresso.
“GRAND HOTEL TREMEZZO IS AN EXEMPLAR OF BELLE EPOQUE GRACE, A SUNNY YELLOW PALACE TRIMMED WITH GREEN HEDGES AND BRIGHT-ORANGE AWNINGS”
A sea of flowers
Resting gently on the water’s edge, Grand Hotel Tremezzo is an exemplar of Belle Epoque grace, a sunny yellow palace trimmed with green hedges and bright-orange awnings. For over 40 years and three generations it has been owned by the same Milanese family and is today managed by CEO Valentina De Santis, a woman who epitomises Italian style as much as her hotel. She and her mother Elena have created sumptuous rooms of rich pastel silks and red rugs, deep lounges, grand marble baths, gilt-edged mirrors and high ornate ceilings – and all with floor to ceiling windows and balconies to embrace the magnificent views. Elegant displays of flowers bring the hotel’s century-old park indoors; at breakfast, silver vases on each table brim with a spray of white chrysanthemums.
The hotel’s grounds are filled with tall palms and trees, pink and purple bougainvillea and flowers of all colours. Then there is the Piscina dei Fiori – the flower pool – set amid trees, Riviera palms and tulips. Another pool – Water on the Water – dramatically juts out into Lake Como, a modernistic, crystal-clear triumph of engineering hovering over the glacial depths with a popular club bar, T Beach, complete with chic lido.
Next door to the hotel, the grand botanical gardens of Villa Carlotta are blooming, even now as the season is about to draw to a close. Sprawling seven hectares along the lake’s shore, this 17th-century retreat represents the perfect balance of art and nature; it is equally renowned for its vast seas of rhododendrons and azaleas as it is for its intricate interiors and artistic masterpieces. I wander through the Italian garden down to the water’s edge, breathing in the scent of the lemons, oranges and limes of the citrus tunnels, heavy on the afternoon breeze.
The evening begins with a Campari aperitivo, watching the sun set slowly over the swelling violet mountains. Later in the evening we make our way to the nearby city of Como, where we dine in a 12th-century Romanesque church, now the elegant Ristorante La Colombetta, frequented by both Robert De Niro and George Clooney. This family-run classic is home to simple, perfect dining – cockles, scallops, sea bass, octopus, carpaccio – and fine Italian wines.
Bellagio bellissimo
Across from the Grand Hotel Tremezzo lies the enchanting ancient town of Bellagio, a former medieval fort and erstwhile home of 18th-century Lombard aristocrats. We choose to take the ferry across the lake, soaking up the scenery and classic villas that sparkle on the shore. Bellagio’s fading, rosepainted houses are knitted together above narrow dark lanes and steep cobblestoned stairways, a bustling relic of the past.
The local Ristorante Carillon serves delicious fare with lakeside views. I dine on cozze alla marinara (mussels in red sauce), penne al salmone and scaloppine
di vitello – perfect on a warm autumn day with a crisp white wine.
For the journey back to Tremezzo, we summon the hotel’s sleek water limo Ruy, a 1961 Venetian Riva motor launch, but we don’t return straight away.
Immaculate 19th-century villas hug every cliff and shore line as if they were a natural part of the scenery, and I cannot say I have seen Lake Como if I haven’t explored the most extraordinary residence of all, Villa del Balbianello.
James Bond fans might recognise its vertical façade and terraced garden from ‘Casino Royale’, but Villa del Balbianello’s original claim to fame was as the summer home of Cardinal Durini, who converted a monastery into his private abode for literary pursuits in the late 17th century. The woodlined library houses more than 4000 tomes on subjects such as alpinism and polar exploration, collected by former owner (and intrepid adventurer) Guido Monzino, while the music room is an exquisitely furnished ode to the arts.
As we motor back across the lake in the early evening – Bellagio and the beautiful villas in our wake, the sun slowly fading over the Alps, a cool breeze in the air – it is easy to see why generations of Italians, Europeans and travellers from across the world have sought peace, sunshine and beauty in this truly remarkable destination. It is aesthetically perfect, where nature serves architecture and all serve the still, blue lake.
Moments in Milan
Of course, a journey to Lake Como simply isn’t done without a stop in fashioncapital Milan. Polished designer displays line the streets, tempting shoppers. In my two days I purchase an exquisite Prada handbag and feast on a truffle-infused dinner at Tartufi & Friends, and wine and antipasti in the sleek garden of Bar Martini by Dolce & Gabbana.
Staying at the Carlton Hotel Baglioni was the perfect choice, right near the fashion district and walking distance from Milan’s other must-see attractions: the opera house of Teatro alla Scala, the Gothic lacework of the Duomo cathedral and the glass-roofed arcade of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.