Lake Como: Ultimate Lakeside Luxury

Most guests arrive by private transfer from Milan Malpensa Airport, approximately one hour from the southern end of the lake, or from Milan city centre, around 90 minutes by car. The train from Milan Centrale to Varenna takes approximately one hour and provides its own kind of arrival, with the lake appearing between the mountains as the train approaches from the south.

A private wooden boat meets guests at the station pier in Varenna or at a designated jetty for those arriving by car, and the transfer to the first accommodation on the water sets the character of everything that follows. The boat is a restored vintage craft with a local skipper who covers the lake daily, and the first crossing delivers the scale of the lake in a way that no other arrival method does.

Varenna sits on the eastern shore, a village of narrow streets, painted facades, and a lakeside promenade that runs between two small beaches. Of the three villages on the itinerary it is the most intimate, with fewer visitors than Bellagio and a character that reflects working lakeside life rather than the tourist economy of the western shore. The Passeggiata degli Innamorati, the promenade along the water’s edge, is one of the more quietly affecting walks in northern Italy.

Villa Monastero, a former Cistercian monastery converted into a lakeside villa, sits at the southern end of the village with a botanical garden running from the water’s edge up the hillside behind it, covering over 150 plant species across 2.5 hectares. The interior holds period furnishings and art collections. A private guide visit before the day visitors arrive by ferry gives the rooms and gardens a quality of quiet the standard opening hours do not. Villa Cipressi, an 18th-century villa with terraced gardens stepping down to the lake, sits adjacent and can be visited on the same morning.

The first full private boat day departs from Varenna in the mid-morning, following the eastern shore south before crossing to the western shore and tracing the line of villas between Tremezzina and Ossuccio. The skipper narrates throughout, covering the ownership history, the architecture, and the stories attached to each property.

A private boat transfer carries you west to Bellagio, the village at the tip of the Punta Spartivento, the promontory that divides the lake into its three branches. It is the most photographed village on the lake, with steep cobbled lanes, wisteria-draped staircases, and views in three directions from above.

Villa Melzi d’Eril sits at the southern edge of the village, built in 1808 for Napoleon’s vice president of the Italian Republic. The gardens extend 500 meters along the lakefront with a Japanese garden, a Moorish temple, and azaleas and rhododendrons, while the interior holds period furnishings and Egyptian antiquities.A private visit before the gardens open to the public gives the rooms and grounds a stillness that the standard hours cannot produce.

Villa del Balbianello, across the water in Lenno, requires a short boat transfer. The villa sits on a forested promontory with terraced gardens and loggias that appear in Star Wars Episode II and two James Bond films. The interior holds the personal collection of explorer Guido Monzino, donated to the Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano in 1988. A private visit before 10am gives the loggia and its Alpine view a silence that disappears within the first hour of the day.

Bellagio’s lanes hold silk shops, jewelers, and restaurants that reward slow movement in the early morning or late evening. Aperitivo on the terrace as the sun drops behind the mountains is the most direct reason to be in Bellagio at that hour.

A private boat transfer along the western shore carries you north to Menaggio, a town that most Lake Como itineraries cover as a day trip rather than a stay. It sits directly opposite Varenna across the centre of the lake, with the mountains of the Swiss border visible to the north, and operates closer to the pace of a working Italian town than a tourist destination.

The second full private boat day departs from Menaggio with Villa Carlotta in Tremezzina as the primary stop. It is the only historic villa on the lake with open access to both the interior and the gardens. The interior holds a collection of Neoclassical sculpture, including Thorvaldsen’s Alexander’s Triumphant Entry into Babylon, a frieze commissioned by Napoleon, and rooms of original furnishings from the 19th-century occupation by a Prussian princess.

The botanical gardens hold the most significant collection of camellias and rhododendrons in northern Italy. A private guide visit to the interior, followed by time in the gardens at your own pace, is the appropriate balance. Lunch in Menaggio before an afternoon on the water. The promenade in the early evening, when the day visitors have departed, is one of the quieter places on the lake.

A private transfer connects to Milan Malpensa Airport or Milan city centre, with the departure time set around the flight connection. The drive south follows the western shore of the lake before joining the motorway toward Milan, with the last view of the water at Cernobbio before the city begins.

The itinerary can be extended with additional nights on the lake, a day trip north to Lugano in Switzerland, or a connection to Venice or Florence.