Villa d'Este (Cernobbio)

The Villa d'Este, originally Villa del Garovo, is a Renaissance patrician residence in Cernobbio on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy, close to the city of Como. Both the villa and the 25-acre (10 ha) park which surrounds it have undergone significant changes since their sixteenth-century origins as a summer residence for Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio, who had been born in the village. Visiting the garden in 1903 for Century Magazine, Edith Wharton found this to be ‘the only old garden on Como which keeps more than a fragment of its original architecture’, and noted that ‘though Queen Caroline anglicised part of the grounds, the main lines of the Renaissance garden still exist’. It was Queen Caroline who gave it the name Nuova Villa d'Este, though it has never belonged to the d'Este family.

Since 1873, the Villa d'Este complex has been a luxury hotel which is a popular destination for Hollywood celebrities and prominent figures. The hotel complex comprises 152 rooms and suites spread across the Cardinal Building and the Queen's Pavilion, along with several private villas. It features notable amenities such as extensive gardens (a UNESCO World Heritage candidate site), a famous floating pool on the lake, and multiple dining venues. The hotel typically closes for a period during the winter for maintenance but has recently remained open through the Christmas holiday season.