Villa D'este

Villa D'este

Coffee arrives at the window overlooking Cernobbio's old center, with the funicular up to Como Alta, Villa Olmo and the Volta Temple close enough to walk to before the day gets hot. Villa d'Este began life in the sixteenth century as a private noble residence rather than a hotel, and that origin still shows: the 152 rooms sit on a single floor, split between the historic buildings and four separate villas set apart in the estate's own park, offering the seclusion of a private house rather than a corridor of doors. Four restaurants cover the ground, from Veranda's terrace over the lake to Platano's Mediterranean-Japanese menu and Bar Canova for the evening, alongside a spa with sauna, steam room, hamam, solarium and massage, a fitness center, and indoor and outdoor pools. A conference hall and tour desk mean a board meeting or a day out to the lake villages can both be arranged without leaving reception, and there is a barbeque area and picnic spot for slower afternoons. What separates it from the other grand names on Lake Como is that villa option itself, a self-contained house inside a working resort, offering a privacy no suite upstairs can match. This suits someone who wants five centuries of history run with full service, and who does not flinch at a room rate that starts high before the cleaning tax and any gala dinner surcharge are added. It will not suit a traveller after boutique intimacy or a quiet bargain. Villa d'Este does not need to raise its voice about any of this. It has been the setting rather than the backdrop for five hundred years, and it still behaves that way. Villa d'Este has been a private noble residence on Lake Como since the sixteenth century, and its four separate villas inside the historic park still offer that scale of privacy. Book it for the history and full service, not for a quiet boutique feel or a modest bill.