Which silver-fox lothario of the silver screen haven’t you seen piloting a varnished teak motorboat across the enamel-flat surface of Lake Como? From Daniel Craig in Casino Royale to George Clooney in Ocean’s Twelve to, erm, Adam Sandler in Murder Mystery, Lake Como has always been a backdrop for Hollywood and a byword for luxury hospitality.
Perhaps that’s why you’re just as likely to hear an American accent as an Italian during peak season. However, as with anywhere, scratch beneath the surface or take the path less travelled and you’ll be rewarded with authenticity and adventure in equal measure.
Where to stay
Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni
If the nicest birthday present you’ve ever given someone was a hotel, then that would put your generosity on par with Count Frizzoni, who gifted Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni as a birthday present to his wife, the Countess, back in 1853. Marinated in history, this yellow chiffon grande dame of Lake Como has been family-run since 1873 and is Bellagio’s only five-star hotel.
Its Murano chandeliers have witnessed fascist occupation, the fall of Mussolini, and the Second World War, and its bedrooms have facilitated the snoozes of a celebrity clientele that includes Winston Churchill, JFK, Monica Bellucci, and the queen of Sweden, to name just a handful. Serbelloni has undoubtedly the best location of any hotel in Bellagio (or Lake Como for that matter), positioned directly on the waterfront with its own private jetty, beach, diving platform and slice of the lakeside.
Frescoed dining rooms, trompe l’oeil, marble columns, and more silk upholstery than an opera house, Serbelloni is not a hideout for the Scandi minimalist. But where’s the fun in restraint? The 94 bedrooms and suites are an opulent concoction of gilded chairs, lofty ceilings and marble bathrooms. The hotel is run with warm Italian hospitality, in part thanks to its many staff members who have worked here for years. When you’re not ploughing your way through the hotel’s two restaurants and bars like a locust, head to the newly renovated Luce del Lago spa, flaunting the largest hammam in Lake Como.
Rooms from £585 including breakfast. Via Teresio Olivelli, 1, 22021 Bellagio CO; villaserbelloni.com
Il Sereno
The Il Sereno Lago di Como experience begins not at the lake but at Linate Airport, where guests are whisked into a custom-made Maserati Quattroporte for the hour’s journey to Torno, a sleepy village on the less-travelled eastern shore. Check-in takes place on the property’s stone terrace, beside a 20-metre heated infinity pool that appears to hover above the lake. Guests are welcomed with a chilled bottle of bespoke-labelled Bollinger, the first of many reminders that here, the details are as carefully engineered as the Riva motorboats moored nearby. Couple this with a full- service Valmont Spa and the Michelin-starred restaurant, Il Sereno Al Lago, which is helmed by executive chef Raffaele Lenzi, and it can become extremely challenging to pry yourself away from this face-meltingly beautiful hotel.
There’s perhaps no better place on the planet to enjoy local nebbiolo paired with high-concept Lombardian cuisine – it’s the type of dining that will make you a lifelong Alitalia customer. When it comes to the building itself, Il Sereno looks firmly forward, designed by Milan-based architect and designer Patricia Urquiola, utilising natural materials such as walnut wood and stone to create a space that melds seamlessly with its surroundings, also integrating with vertical gardens designed by Patrick Blanc, which spill over walls like the hanging gardens of Babylon. Nature is a touchstone here, and Il Sereno does its best to safeguard its future, with a prestigious Climate House certification earned for its energy-saving systems and responsible design.
There are 40 spacious suites with floor-to-ceiling windows that absolutely gulp in gorgeous views of the lake. Taken all together, it’s easy to see why Il Sereno won #1 Resort in Europe, #1 Resort in Italy, and #4 Hotel in the World by Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards 2023. Lake Como has never been short on grandeur, but Il Sereno offers something harder to find: a sense of modernity without ostentation. It’s confident, quiet, and effortlessly contemporary – and, yep, the Maserati is just the beginning.
Rates at Il Sereno start at £640 per night. Via Torrazza, 10, 22020 Torno CO; serenohotels.com
What to do
Boat
Riding a riva boat on the lake
You’ve seen the films. To truly experience Lake Como, there’s something ineffably exciting about boarding a boat and taking off to the north, where Alpine mountains emerge from behind fairy-tale ridges that drop off precipitously into the water. At Il Sereno, they have a stable of three custom-built Cantiere Ernesto Riva boats, which can be taken out for private use. The firm has been building boats since 1771, and they’re essentially objets d’art, the varnish on their dark wood so lacquered that they reflect light as much as the water. Equally, if you’re pitched at Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, they’ve got a Riva boat tour on the menu too – where your guide points out the lake’s famous villas and their even more famous owners. Eyes peeled for Mr Clooney.
Hike
Shaped like an upside-down ‘Y’, Lake Como is nestled between three major ridgelines in the Pre-Alps, the transitional range between the Po Valley and the Central Alps. The limestone and dolomite ranges reach up to 2,609 metres at the highest point in the region – Monte Legnone – and are swathed in stunning and sometimes haunting forests of chestnut and beech trees. The paths here are well waymarked, making navigation straightforward for casual walkers. There are a plethora of trails spread around the entire body of water. From Torno, take ancient cobblestone mule tracks up steep hills to Montepiatto, where you can walk beyond bucolic mountain churches such as the Chapel of San Giuseppe and the Church of Santa Elisabetta as well as striking limestone rock formation such as the erratic Massi Avelli or the Pietra Pendula, a boulder teetering atop a narrow plinth like an enormous mushroom. Along the way, you’ll often hear the rhythmic clang of cowbells from grazing cattle. There’s a wolf on the signage at Trattoria Crotto Montepiatto 610, as they keep a wolfhound in the cellar, and you can power up with sustaining polenta and wine served in tiny tureens. If you have the energy and a penchant for heights, scale the mountain behind to reach Castel d’Ardona, an abandoned ruin that brings to mind Frankenstein’s castle. Mary Shelley stayed on Lake Como, less than a mile away as the crow flies.
Go to a Como 1907 game
A Como 1907 game
Daan Wijngaard
Haven’t seen enough shirtless men on your holiday yet? Fulfil the quota by bagging tickets to a Como 1907 football match, held at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia – located so close to the water it feels like the pitch might slip in. The team, recently promoted to Serie A after a 21-year absence, has a storied history of, er, hiccups, including multiple bankruptcies and a stint in amateur leagues. Despite the challenges, the club has seen a resurgence under new ownership, attracting celebrity attention and aiming to solidify its place in top-flight Italian football. The matchday experience is charmingly more low-key than any Premier League jaunt.
Swim in the lake
Swimming platform at Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni
The clue’s in the name, really. It would be remiss to visit Lake Como and not fling yourself into its sparkling depths. For the uninitiated, Lake Como is Italy’s third- largest lake, sprawling over 146 square kilometres – about five hours’ drive from tip to toe if you’re ambitious, bored, or both. The water? Cold. Factory reset kind of cold. Fed by glacial melt from the Alps, it stays bracing even in the thick of summer, which is either a perk or a punishment depending on your constitution. If you’re hardy (or hungover), you can swim almost anywhere – just steer clear of the ports and the city of Como itself unless you fancy bobbing about next to a ferry. There are kitted-out beaches with loungers and free-flowing Aperol in Menaggio, Lenno, and Faggeto Lario. You’ll also find swim spots in Lecco, Lierna, Mandello del Lario, Bellano, Dervio and Colico.
Villa Melzi Botanical Gardens
Villa Melzi Botanical Gardens
Daan Wijngaard
A 20-minute stroll from Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni (tickets are free if you’re lucky enough to be staying), Villa Melzi’s gardens might just be the most romantic spot in Bellagio. Think camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons in full bloom, winding paths, neoclassical statues and a lakeside chapel. Built in the 1800s as a post- political passion project by Napoleon’s right-hand man, Francesco Melzi d’Eril, the villa is still privately owned, but thankfully the gardens were flung open to the public in the 1970s. At £5.50, it’s cheaper than a Campari soda and twice as soul-soothing.
Where to eat?
Il Sereno Al Lago
Dining at Il Sereno al Lago
Patricia Parinejad
We’ve already mentioned it, but there’s perhaps no better place to enjoy refined Lombardian cuisine on the lake than at chef Raffaele Lenzi’s restaurant. Situated in the cellars of the building, guests gaze out at the water as they lap below their feet, and are lavished with a succession of dishes that elevate northern Italian dining into the divine. Whether it’s veal ossobucco or local lavaret, cooked on the plancha and served with lettuce and a cassoeula reduction, you can count on being in a fugue state of satisfaction. The wine list excels in nebbiolo from nearby wineries in Valtellina and Langhe, and the staff fuse precision with warmth in a way that you can only find in Italy.
Via Torrazza, 10, 22020 Torno CO, Italy; serenohotels.com
Rivenoteca
If you find yourself pootling around the city of Como, ravenous and surrounded by tourist traps flogging mediocrity at Milan runway prices, make for Rivenoteca. Part wine shop, part restaurant, the menu leans local – spaghetti alla chitarra with missoltino (sun-dried lake fish), almonds, butter and raisins; crisp fried lake fish with lemon mayo; and a hunky Milanese veal cutlet if you’re still peckish. Got checked luggage? The shelves are stacked with quaffable bottles from Lombardy’s vineyards, perfect for smuggling home.
Via Armando Diaz, 56, 22100 Como CO; rivenoteca.it
Mistral
Dining at Mistral
Mistral is Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni’s fine dining heavyweight, housed in a vast glass veranda that claimed to be Europe’s largest back in 2004. Is it still? Who knows. But who’s measuring verandas when there’s peacock tortellini on the table? Executive chef Ettore Bocchia’s seven-course tasting menu – with optional wine pairing – is packed with refined heavy hitters: wild sole with chanterelles, Ligurian-style stuffed rabbit with radicchio and mustard and roasted blue lobster cavatelli. Thought we left molecular gastronomy behind in the Heston Blumenthal era? Think again. For pudding, there’s liquid nitrogen ice cream made tableside.
Via Teresio Olivelli, 1, 22021 Bellagio CO; villaserbelloni.com
La Goletta
Dining at Mistral
Take a stroll down to the basement of Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, past the portraits of Churchill and Roosevelt, and a 1943 letter from the Swiss consulate in Milan offering protection to the Bucher family (who own the hotel) during World War I. There, you’ll find La Goletta, a nautical-themed dining room with a menu of classic Mediterranean fare spliced with Southeast Asian flavours. A stern piece of advice when ordering here: get the bucatini pomodoro. Tomato pasta might be for children, but well-made tomato pasta is worthy of adult mouths. Gracefully treading the tomato sauce tightrope, balancing sweetness and richness with a pleasing sourness, I ate this dish four times during my two-night stay.
Via Teresio Olivelli, 1, 22021 Bellagio CO; villaserbelloni.com
