A MARRIAGE OF ART AND NATURE

Meet your private driver in Bellagio and relax on the ride to Como. Here your guide will be waiting ready to lead you on a trail through Como’s elegant streets, across charming piazzas, inside splendid churches, while filling you in on the history of this lakeside town. From its early days as an ancient Roman colony, through its rise in the Renaissance as a prosperous trading hub and major silk production centre, to today’s glamorous role as Italy’s prime tourist destination… you’ll have 2,000 years to cover.

You begin your day with a visit to the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, the pride of Como, boasting a brilliant blend of different artistic styles, stretching from the Middles Ages through to the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Construction work started in 1396 and ended more than three hundred years later, in 1740, when architect Filippo Juvarra crowned the queen of Como’s churches with an imposing dome. The 14th century facade is a Gothic marvel featuring elaborately sculpted portals, pinnacles, stone carvings and a rose window. Before stepping inside don’t forget to pay homage to two prominent ancient Roman residents of Como, Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger, who surprise visitors with their welcome from either side of the main entrance, a gesture traditionally performed by saints. The interior proudly safeguards 16th and 17th century tapestries made in Ferrara, Florence and Antwerp, together with paintings by masters Bernardino Luini and Gaudenzio Ferrari, a precious wooden altar from the 1500s and 19th century stained glass windows.

Another of Como’s landmarks, the polychromatic Broletto, has been sitting sedately in the same square of Piazza Duomo ever since 1215. Formerly the seat of Como’s town hall, this building is situated right next to the grandiose cathedral, material evidence of the close connection between religious and political power in the Middle Ages. In 1477 the unfortunate Broletto suffered a reduction in size in order to make room for an enlargement of the cathedral – a heartfelt blow for lay institutions.

From here make your way through Como’s alleys, taking in the sights of handsome palazzi, on a quest for some of the town’s most striking monuments. You will certainly come across the Church of San Fedele, whose simple Romanesque facade conceals a graciously decorated interior, the 40-metre-high Porta Torre erected in 1192 as a defence against enemy attacks, and the extraordinarily well preserved portions of medieval walls. Not to be missed are also the Neoclassical-style facade of the Teatro Sociale and the Casa del Fascio, an example of 1930s rationalist architecture.

After some free time for lunch reach the dock, hop aboard your private boat and set sail for Villa del Balbianello. As you cruise along watch the delightful views of Lake Como’s winding shoreline unravel in front of you: dark green forested slopes rising against a backdrop of majestic snowy peaks, historic mansions set amongst lush Mediterranean foliage, lavish terraced gardens tumbling right down to the banks, pretty villages sprinkled with pastel-hued buildings. Here natural beauty, botanical rarities, art treasures and architectural marvels merge perfectly, creating one of Italy’s finest landscapes. Poet Percy Shelley navigated these waters, enjoying the very same sights you admire today, as he cruised from Como to Tremezzina: “The union of culture and the untameable profusion and loveliness of nature is here so close that the line where they are divided can hardly be discovered”, he noted in a letter dated 1818. You will sail by Villa d’Este, once a Renaissance residence and today a 5-star hotel, glimpse views of the privately owned exclusive Villa Oleandra and Villa La Cassinella, glide past the tiny Comacina Island and dock at Villa del Balbianello.

Perched on the tip of a peninsula jutting out over the lake, this is one of the area’s most stunning estates. Built in 1787 at the request of pleasure-seeking Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini, on the site of an earlier 13th century Franciscan monastery, today the premises host magnificent gardens and a house museum dedicated to the villa’s last owner, Count Guido Monzino. Collector, entrepreneur, insatiable traveller and also the first Italian ever to climb Mount Everest, Count Monzino bequeathed the villa to the Italian National Trust so that memories of his thrilling adventures could live on for posterity. Here you may enjoy a 1-hour guided tour of the mansion – which is exactly how the owner left it on his death in 1988 – led by an official guide from the museum. On display are 18th and 19th century furniture, French boiseries, Beauvais tapestries and oriental carpets as well as maps, books, collections of prehistoric artefacts and relics of Count Monzino’s travels, including a dog sleigh from his 1971 expedition to the North Pole. The gardens surrounding the villa are a true masterpiece of landscaping and design. Follow the paths that meander across carefully manicured lawns, bordered with hedges of laurel, magnolias and cypress trees, leading to the lakefront loggia where one of the most fabulous views awaits guests.

Take a last long look at the gorgeous lakescapes before returning to Bellagio by water taxi.