Villa d'Este on Lake Como was built as a summer house for a cardinal, became a queen's refuge and has been a hotel since 1873. Here are facts about one of Europe's most famous lakeside hotels.
In this story · 6 sections
Villa d'Este is situated in Cernobbio on the western shore of Lake Como, a few kilometres from Como, in a park of around ten hectares. It is a Renaissance house that has been rebuilt many times, and since 1873 a luxury hotel. The name is a later invention: the house never belonged to the Italian princely family d'Este. It was an English princess who gave it the name, and the hotel kept it in order to benefit from the similarity with the famous Villa d'Este in Tivoli outside Rome.
Villa d'Este
Hotel · Cernobbio
© OpenStreetMap contributors · OpenFreeMap
- Place
- Cernobbio, Lake Como
- Villa built
- 1565–1570
- Hotel since
- 1873
- Rooms and suites
- 152, as well as private villas
- Park
- Around 10 hectares
- Guide MICHELIN
- A Key (2024)
- Annual events
- Concorso d'Eleganza (May), Ambrosetti Forum (September)
Renaissance villa from 1565–1570 by Lake Como, a hotel since 1873, with a floating pool in the lake.
01The cardinal's Villa del Garovo
At the site, at the mouth of the Garovo stream, the Bishop of Como founded a convent in 1442. A century later, Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio, who was born in the village, had the convent demolished and built a residence for himself. The designs are usually attributed to Pellegrino Tibaldi, although Italian sources consider it more likely that Giovan Antonio Piotti, known as il Vacallo, was the architect. Villa del Garovo and its gardens were built between 1565 and 1570, and during the cardinal's lifetime the house became a meeting place for politicians, intellectuals and churchmen.
After Gallio's death, the villa fell into decline. Between 1749 and 1769 it was a centre for the Jesuits' spiritual exercises, and it was then purchased by Count Mario Odescalchi and, in 1778, by Count Marliani. In 1784 the Milanese Calderari family took over, restored the house and laid out a new Italian garden with a large nymphaeum and a temple containing a 17th-century statue of Hercules throwing Lichas into the sea. The marquis's widow, Vittoria Peluso, a former ballerina at La Scala known as la Pelusina, remarried the Napoleonic general Domenico Pino and had a mock fortress built in the park in his honour.
02Queen Caroline's Nuova Villa d'Este
In 1815, Caroline of Brunswick moved here. She was the estranged wife of the future King George IV of the United Kingdom and had been encouraged to live abroad. Her garden seemed almost to hang in the air, she wrote in her diary. She named the house Nuova Villa d'Este and had parts of the park remodelled in the English style. According to Italian sources, she also had the road to Como built.
Insider tipA MICHELIN Key
When Edith Wharton visited the garden in 1903 for The Century Magazine, she noted that it was the only old garden on Lake Como that had preserved more than a fragment of its original architecture – despite Caroline's English touches, the main lines of the Renaissance garden remained.
03A hotel since 1873
In 1873, the villa became a luxury hotel for the nobility and the upper bourgeoisie. In 1925, Alfred Hitchcock filmed scenes for his film The Pleasure Garden here. In 1948, a gala dinner at the hotel became the scene of a famous murder, when Countess Pia Bellentani shot her lover, silk manufacturer Carlo Sacchi. In the Guide MICHELIN 2024, the hotel received a Key, the guide's award for hotels.
The hotel has 152 rooms and suites, spread across the Cardinal Building and the Queen's Pavilion, as well as several private villas. The most famous feature is the floating pool out on the lake. The hotel usually closes for a period during winter for maintenance, but in recent years has stayed open over Christmas.
04The cars in May, the economists in September
Every May, the park fills with vintage and concept cars during the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este, a competition in elegance with roots in the late 1920s, today organised together with BMW Group Classic. In September, the Ambrosetti Forum is held, an international economic conference that The European House – Ambrosetti has organised since 1975 and which brings together politicians, financiers and business leaders.
The hotel group has also expanded in Cernobbio. In October 2024, Villa d'Este SpA bought the historic Harry's Bar in Cernobbio, and in November 2024 Hotel Regina Olga and Hotel Miralago, which are to be rebuilt with a planned reopening in 2027.
05More to read
More from Lake Como: 48 hours in Bellagio and Villa Carlotta and Balbianello, the lake's two great gardens. All our city guides and destinations can be found at metromode.co.
