Travel
- Visiting The Romantic Borromean Islands On Lake Maggiore
Isolla Bella, views from the shoreline We dedicated an entire day of our trip on Lake Maggiore to visit its most famous attractions - the Borromean Islands. We started the day with a stroll on Stresa's shoreline and after admiring the magnificent...
- The Magnificent Gardens Of Villa Taranto On Lake Maggiore
The day we visited the gardens of Villa Taranto the weather played tricks on us. After a rainy morning, we left our hotel in Cannero Riviera for Verbania, trusting the clouds were gone for the rest of the day. Boy, we were wrong! Five minutes after...
- Exploring The Italian Lakes: Lake Como And Lake Maggiore
When it comes to Italian lakes, Lake Como is the first one to pop into people's minds, partly because of all the Hollywood movies filmed there, partly because a few years ago George Clooney bought a villa here. But if Como is my favorite Italian lake,...
- Villa Carlotta. Luxury And Drama On The Lake
Villa Carlotta is one of the most famous villas around Lake Como in Italy. This aristocratic villa build at the end of the 1600's dominates the waters of the lake from the slopes of the hill. Nestled in between Cadenabbia and Tremezzo and only a short...
- Lake Como, The Garden Of The Gods
View of Varenna, Lake Como Mark Twain once said that God made Italy from designs by Michaelangelo. If this is true, then I bet when He got to the Alps and he sprinkled them with twinkleing lakes he did it all by Himself, as this is no man's work....
Travel
360º View of Lake Como From the Gardens of Villa Serbelloni
Lake Como is known worldwide for its luxurious villas, perfectly manicured gardens and dramatic landscape. So the small town of Bellagio, considered the pearl of the lake, is guaranteed to knock your socks off from the very beginning, even though it has only two gardens open to the public - Villa Melzi d'Eril and Villa Serbelloni. The two of them are extremely different, and while the Gardens of Villa Melzi are for me the perfect expression of heaven on Earth, the Gardens of Villa Serbelloni offer some of the most spectacular and unique views over the three branches of the lake.
Villa Serbelloni and its gardens is located on top of the hill at the very tip of the Bellagio peninsula. The gardens can be visited by guided tour only, while the villa remains closed to the large public.
As the grounds belong to the Rockefeller Foundation, the villa is used as a conference and international study centre for scholars and artists and visitors to the gardens can't even get close to it. Actually the main building can barely be spotted from the guided tour, but we could see it from afar, while sited on the terrace of our hotel, Il Perlo Panorama, located on the opposite hill (it's the large, yellow building in the photo above)
The guided tour starts next to the medieval tower in the church square, where Promo Bellagio is. Temporal exhibitions are hosted in the same building (we visited a nice one with paintings by Hermann Hesse), so if you are into fine arts, it's well worth taking a look.
The gardens are really huge, about 20 hectares, with 18km of pathways. The tour however, is a nice and relaxing walk among old trees and evergreen shrubs, circling the hill, so that visitors can contemplate the lake from all angles. The guided tours are organized twice a day and take about one hour and a half.
The visit starts with some incredible views over the Como branch of the lake and the rooftops of Bellagio. In the distance we could spot as far as Villa Balbianello in Lecco, the one where scenes from Star Wars and Casino Royale movies were filmed.
Then we walked up the hill (the hiking really has a low difficulty level and the guide stops often for explanations) passing by small studios used by the artists who come here via the Rockefeller Foundation. The studios are small and they've surely seen better days, but they blend in very nicely with the lush green surroundings.
Don't expect many flowers, as the grounds have more the feeling of a park than a garden. But you will find the occasional statue hidden among the trees and the views of the mountains and the villages surrounding the lake are truly breathtaking.
The villa with its gardens date back to the 18th century, and it was a private residence until 1959 when it was donated to the Rockefeller Foundation. Nowadays artists and scientists come here to do research and let the creative juices flowing in one of the most inspiring settings on this planet.
We also got some inspiration of our own while visiting the gardens of Villa Serbelloni, hence we spotted this small port on the Lecco branch of Lake Como and this intriguing church transformed into a private residence and at the end of the guided tour we went to check them out. Totally worth it, by the way!
While the Lecco side of the lake is not as interesting as the Como one, it is still very beautiful and the views from the gardens were pretty special.
But of course, the most breathtaking panorama was towards the Colico side. This is a sight I could hardly leave behind. We could see till far in the distance, the snow caped mountains close to the end of the lake. However, the end of the lake can never be seen from Bellagio.
This is a different perspective than the one we got from our hotel room, where the whole Bellagio laid in front of us before the lake came into sight, and also a bird's eye view different from the water level one from Punta Spartaviento.
This is a different perspective than the one we got from our hotel room, where the whole Bellagio laid in front of us before the lake came into sight, and also a bird's eye view different from the water level one from Punta Spartaviento.
During our stay on Lake Como at he beginning of May, we visited four gardens, and each of them had something very different to offer. I believe one should visit the gardens of Villa Serbelloni first of all for the unparalleled views of Lake Como and second for the nice hike on horseshoe pathways winding among the trees. Just as I believe the gardens of Villa Melzi need to be visited for their sheer beauty and perfection, Villa Balbianello for the sake of the pop culture and Villa Carlotta... well, because everyone does it anyways.
- Visiting The Romantic Borromean Islands On Lake Maggiore
Isolla Bella, views from the shoreline We dedicated an entire day of our trip on Lake Maggiore to visit its most famous attractions - the Borromean Islands. We started the day with a stroll on Stresa's shoreline and after admiring the magnificent...
- The Magnificent Gardens Of Villa Taranto On Lake Maggiore
The day we visited the gardens of Villa Taranto the weather played tricks on us. After a rainy morning, we left our hotel in Cannero Riviera for Verbania, trusting the clouds were gone for the rest of the day. Boy, we were wrong! Five minutes after...
- Exploring The Italian Lakes: Lake Como And Lake Maggiore
When it comes to Italian lakes, Lake Como is the first one to pop into people's minds, partly because of all the Hollywood movies filmed there, partly because a few years ago George Clooney bought a villa here. But if Como is my favorite Italian lake,...
- Villa Carlotta. Luxury And Drama On The Lake
Villa Carlotta is one of the most famous villas around Lake Como in Italy. This aristocratic villa build at the end of the 1600's dominates the waters of the lake from the slopes of the hill. Nestled in between Cadenabbia and Tremezzo and only a short...
- Lake Como, The Garden Of The Gods
View of Varenna, Lake Como Mark Twain once said that God made Italy from designs by Michaelangelo. If this is true, then I bet when He got to the Alps and he sprinkled them with twinkleing lakes he did it all by Himself, as this is no man's work....