Palace Hotel Villa Cortine

Palace Hotel Villa Cortine

On a private hill at the tip of the Sirmione peninsula, a neoclassical villa built in 1900 for Count Kurt Von Koseritz still carries the Veronese marble he shipped in by barge, added when his wife needed the lake's climate as a cure. Villa Cortine Palace Relais & Chateaux keeps that scale across 54 rooms on three floors, its gardens running down to a private beach and a five-hundred-square-metre jetty where Al Molo Grill cooks meat and fish over open flame, while Le Gardenie serves reworked Italian classics on a terrace facing the sunset over Lake Garda. An indoor pool, a spa, a diving club, a tennis court, a library and bike rental sit within the grounds, so guests who want a lake to swim in and options for a wet afternoon need not leave the property. Executive Chef Mattia Bartoli also runs a candlelight tasting menu at the Belvedere, and the concierge books wine visits to Lugana and Franciacorta and boat tours that pass under the two bridges of Scaliger Castle. This suits couples and solo travelers who want quiet over central bustle, and families who value the family rooms and babysitting more than a fixed budget, since an extra bed costs 100 euros a night and a pet a further 70. It will not suit anyone wanting to step straight from the lobby into Sirmione's restaurant strip; the Grotto of Catullus is a six-hundred-metre walk, Scaliger Castle four hundred. What sets it apart from other addresses on the peninsula is that jetty, a working restaurant built onto the lake rather than merely beside it. Villa Cortine Palace sits on its own hill above Sirmione, with a private beach and a jetty where Al Molo Grill cooks over open flame. Built in 1900 for a Count's ailing wife, it suits couples and families who want the lake without leaving the grounds, not diners chasing town.