Grand Hotel Tremezzo – the Belle Époque palace with a pool afloat on Lake Como

Grand Hotel Tremezzo stands on the western shore of Lake Como in Tremezzina, its cream Art Nouveau façade looking straight across the water to Bellagio and the Grigne mountains. Built for Enea Gandola and his wife Maria Orsolini Bolla, it opened its doors on 10 July 1910, part of a wave of Belle Époque hotels built to turn the lake into an essential stop on the European Grand Tour. Greta Garbo, filming here in 1932, called it her sunny, happy place, and the name has stuck ever since. Since 1975 the hotel has belonged to the De Santis family, now in its third generation under owner and CEO Valentina De Santis, whose grandfather bought the property and whose family also runs the newer Passalacqua across the lake. The MICHELIN Guide recognises Grand Hotel Tremezzo with Two MICHELIN Keys, and the 77-room palace is best known today for the Water-on-the-Water pool that floats, quite literally, on Lake Como itself.

01The house

Enea Gandola, who came from nearby Bellagio, bought the grounds of the old Villa Poncetta in 1907, and construction ran from 1908 to 1910. He hired architect Constantino Ferrario to design the building in the Art Nouveau style then sweeping the Continent, its soaring ceilings and ornate balconies topped, famously for the period, with not one but two lifts and an illuminated sign spelling out the hotel's name. Inside, frescoes covering the grand ceiling were painted by Francesco Congeliani, a pupil of Giambattista Tiepolo. Maria Orsolini Bolla, an astute businesswoman, insisted on electric elevators, central heating and a bathroom in every room, setting a new standard for luxury on the lake.

The hotel passed to the Sampietro family in the 1930s, the decade in which Greta Garbo's visit and the film Grand Hotel sealed its international fame, and it served as a military hospital during the Second World War. In 1975 Valentina De Santis's grandfather bought the property, and her family has run it ever since; she joined the business in 2010, the year of the hotel's centenary, and today also oversees the family's sister property, Passalacqua, on the opposite shore near Moltrasio.

02Rooms and suites

The 77 rooms and suites climb from Park View and Lake View categories, through Junior Suites and Terrace Garden Suites, to a run of Rooftop Suites added during a recent renovation, each with its own private terrace and a Jacuzzi mini-pool looking out over the water. Beyond the main building, Villa Sola Cabiati offers a different kind of stay altogether: six suites inside a villa with arabesque gardens and an aristocratic history dating back to the 16th century, reached from the hotel by car or boat and bookable only in its entirety, complete with private staff. It is here, rather than in the main hotel, that high-profile guests including Taylor Swift have chosen to stay.

Insider tip

Open seasonally on Lake Como's western shore; reachable by car, train to Como plus ferry, or private boat transfer.

03Where to eat

Chefs work across five separate outlets spread through the Palace and the park. The flagship is La Terrazza Gualtiero Marchesi, where the spirit of the Italian Maestro lives on through his signature dishes, served on one of the finest terraces facing the lake. L'Escale Trattoria & Wine Bar occupies a converted wine cellar with its own veranda and pairs refined local dishes with an Italian-only wine list. Down at the water's edge, Da Giacomo al Lago sits beside the floating pool, serving seafood through the day and into the evening, while T Pizza, set in the shade of the garden by the Flowers Pool, is run by Naples-trained pizzaioli working a traditional wood-burning oven. For private occasions, Dimmidisì choreographs bespoke dining experiences down to the last detail.

04The bar

T Bar keeps to the Belle Époque register of the rest of the house, a classic room for an easy lunch, a sunset aperitivo or a late nightcap, its orange-and-white poolside counterpart at T Beach extending the same mood outdoors through the summer.

05Spa and pools

T Spa occupies the 18th-century Villa Emilia, once the library of neighbouring Villa Carlotta, and still shows its original floor mosaics and ceiling frescoes beneath a contemporary fit-out. Local architects Venelli Kramer reworked a narrow, long-unused arched passage beneath the hotel's entrance to create the Espa-partnered treatment spaces, lined in black Venetian marmorino and back-lit onyx, and added a 15-metre infinity pool made of two linked strands. Treatments draw on Santa Maria Novella's apothecary line, and a separate three-storey fitness villa, La Malpensata, covers cardio, movement and strength training.

The hotel's real signature, though, is outside: three pools in all, headed by WOW, the Water-on-the-Water pool that floats directly on Lake Como in front of the private beach, an opalescent platform with Bellagio and the Grigne on the horizon. The Flowers Pool sits among century-old gardens for family swimming, while the spa's indoor-outdoor infinity pool stays open to adults year-round, its doors folded back on fine days.

06The neighbourhood

The hotel adjoins the gardens of Villa Carlotta, Lake Como's best-known botanical museum, a few minutes' walk from the property, and looks directly across the water to Bellagio, with the Grigne mountains rising behind it. A private marina with two jetties and a fleet of vintage speedboats gives guests their own way onto the lake, whether for a crossing to Bellagio, a run up to Villa del Balbianello, or simply an early-morning circuit before the day boats start.

07Making the most of a stay

Guests splitting a Lake Como trip between properties can continue on to Passalacqua, the family's smaller, more discreet hotel on the Moltrasio shore, named World's Best Hotel by the World's 50 Best Hotels list in 2023. Back at Tremezzo, the on-site boutique Sense of Lake sells artisanal keepsakes drawn from the garden's own scents, a quieter way to take the place home than the photograph everyone else leaves with, of that pool afloat on the lake.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.