Bellagio s Villas and Gardens - Bellagio Lake Como

Bellagio’s villas and gardens are an exceptional testimony of aristocratic leisure during the 19th Century.

Bellagio preserves the memory of that splendid era which lasted for over a century, a period in which the town was one of the most exclusive, elegant and aristocratic resorts in Italy.

The villas of the area are an extraordinary example of fine architecture and landscaping which give us a vivid picture of the lifestyle of an entire governing class.

The majority of villas are in the neoclassical style of the Napoleonic era. In fact, it was during those years and for the rest of that century that many of the houses we see today were built. Others are older homes that were converted in the new style.

Bellagio was the place where Italy’s best landscape architects were able to prove their talents. Giuseppe Balzaretto, landscape architect of Milan’s public gardens, designed the garden at Villa Poldi Pezzoli, now known as the Villa Gerli. Canonica and Villoresi, who designed the park at the Royal Palace in Monza, worked on the gardens of Villa Melzi, whilst Albertolli, an important architect who also worked on Villa Olmo in Como, designed the villa. Works by the artists Giuseppe Bossi and Andrea Appiani were carried out here.

The park extends all the way to the top of Bellagio’s promontory. There are over 18 kilometres of paths and avenues from where the visitor can admire the enormous collection of rare and exotic plants growing in the gardens and on the terraces sloping gently down to the lake.

During its history, the Villa has hosted an amazing number of illustrious guests; Leonardo da Vinci, Emperor Maximillian I, Lodovico il Moro, Bianca Maria Sforza and Cardinal Borromeo but to name a few.

More recent guests include Pellico, Maroncelli, Emperor Franz I, the Archdukes of Parma, Queen Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm, King Umberto I, the Italian Prime Minister Agostino Depretis, the American President John F. Kennedy, and writers and poets such as Manzoni, Grossi, Pindemonte and Giuseppe Parini, who spent a long period of time at the Villa as tutor to the Duke’s sons.

Gustave Flaubert mentions Villa Serbelloni in his 1845 travel notes where he calls it “… a spectacle created to delight the eyes. Here one would like to live and even die”.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the villa became a hotel. In 1930, it was bought by the Princess Ella Walker della Torre e Tasso who bequeathed it to the Rockefeller Foundation in 1959. It is now used as a study centre which unites artists and scientists from all over the world in an atmosphere that allows them to work in complete tranquillity. Various grants have allowed for the production of many works of international importance here at the Villa Serbelloni.

The garden of the Villa can only be visited with guided tours every day except Mondays or days where the weather is bad. Tours depart from the old medieval tower in the main Church square at 11:00 am and 4:00 pm. The tour lasts for about one hour and 30 minutes and runs with a minimum of 6 people to a maximum of 30. Groups are accepted on reservation only.

Directly on the lakeside, built between 1808 and 1812 by the architect Giocondo Albertolli for Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Vice President of the Cisalpine Republic and later, Grand Chancellor of the Italian Kingdom. He was a political associate of Napoleon.

The villa, with its neoclassical style, is surrounded by a splendid park which was the first example of an English-style garden in the Como area.

It was created between 1811 and 1815 by Canonica and Villoresi who moved pieces of land, making some areas flat and creating artificial hills in others in order to give a feeling of greater size and to exalt some perspectives. Even the distribution of the vegetation, which seems absolutely natural, is the fruit of long and careful studies aimed at increasing the optical illusion in terms of backgrounds and distances.

Among the plants in the park there is an enormous Cedar of Lebanon, Camellias, Azaleas, Rhododendrons and many tropical plants and trees.

The park is also adorned with several columns and portals from the ancient Lazzaretto in Milan, created by Lazzaro Palazzi in the 15th century.

A statue of Dante and Beatrice by Comolli stands in front of the “Kaffehaus”, an unusual Moorish-style kiosk. It is thought that Franz Litszt was inspired by this statue when he composed his “Sonata a fantasia dopo la lettura di Dante”.

In the neoclassical style, it was commissioned by Count Pietro Venini at the end of the 18th century. It was dedicated it to his wife and was named after her.

From the villa we have a view of the two branches of the lake. This became possible after intensive work on the terrain – descriptions of the works carried out are described by the historian Giovan Battista Giovio: “…rocky outcrops were broken, valleys were created, hilltops were lowered…”.

In the park, a large staircase surrounded by hanging gardens full of fruit trees led down to a small port and a garden of tall trees.

During the 19th century the garden was adorned with statues, fountains and exotic plants, while the main avenue was lined with Cypresses and Magnolias. Behind the villa another avenue was surrounded by vineyards and lemon trees.

Villa Giulia has changed hands many times. After the Venini family it passed into the hands of Leopold I of Belgium followed by the Prince of Flanders. During the second half of the 19th century it became an hotel before being acquired by the Count Blome de Boul Schenenstein who enlargened the park. During the 20th century the house was property of the Polish Baron Gay and the Rumanian nobleman Kirakirschen. The current owners are the Bonecchi family.

In 1752 Marquis Lodovico Trotti acquired the house, which dated back to 1615, from the Loppio family and had it transformed into a sumptuous villa. He surrounded the house with a wonderful Italian garden full of citrus trees and protected it from the north winds with hedges of Laurel.

The garden was transformed during the 19th century by another Lodovico of the same family who, on his return from a long voyage in the East, re-styled the external façade with Moresque decorations. They were so admired in the area that they were often imitated by the owners of other lakeside villas.

The garden was also transformed and, taking advantage of the fact that it was so close to the Perlo torrent, a tropical water garden was created. Here one could find sugar cane, camphor, bamboo, palms, magnolias and rare plants from China, Japan and Korea. Unfortunately this magnificent park was damaged by a flood and by a long period of abandon after the death of Marquis Trotti.

The house was then bought by the Crivelli Serbelloni family and then by the Marquis Malvezzi, followed by Count Gerli in 1941. Today the villa has been divided into several apartments.

Built on the lakeshore by Count Paolo Taverna in the second half of the Eighteenth century. The property was later acquired by the Poldi-Pezzoli family who enlargened the house and commissioned the architect Giuseppe Balzaretto to replace the Italian garden with an English style park.

On the orders of Giacomo Poldi-Pezzoli, Balzaretto built the Gonzaga Mausoleum in the upper part of the garden.

Within the grounds of the garden, there is also the small Romanesque church of Santa Maria of Loppia which has been restored by the current owners, the Counts Gerli, who bought the villa and the park in 1941 from Trivulzio princes, Poldi-Pezzoli family’s heirs.