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Villa Serbelloni is a 5-star luxury Grand Hotel, on a promontory that separates Lake Como from that of Lecco, and is surrounded by one of the most beautiful parks in Lombardy.

In the early Middle Ages, a stronghold used to be right on the spot where the villa was eventually built – some remains of that ancient structure can still be seen.
During the XV century, the property passed to the Stanga family, and then to the Sfondratis, who had the current palace built. The latter has a simple but elegant appearance and is located halfway up the hill on the Bellagio promontory. The interiors retain the ancient vaults and coffered ceilings with the original furnishings.

The garden was designed by Alessandro Serbelloni who inherited these lands at the end of the XVIII century. He created avenues and paths decorates by beautiful statues, and busts. He also designed some artificial caves. All the new paths were somehow intertwined with the former tracks, carefully structures to gently reach the lake and embellished with rose gardens and fruit trees.
When the last heir of the Serbelloni family passed away in 1858, the villa was abandoned for some time abandonment until 1870, when it became an annexe of the Hotel Grande Bretagne, then Grand Hotel Bellagio.
The property was donated to the Rockefeller Foundation – to which it still belongs – in 1959, by the princess Ella Della Torre and Tasso, a rich American heiress who had bought the property in 1930.

THE GARDENS

The gardens of Villa Serbelloni stretch on a large portion of the Bellagio promontory.
The lower part, informally arranged, there are olive trees (Olea europea), domestic pines (Pinus pinea), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), and cypresses (Cupressus sempervirens); behind the villa, however, there is thick indigenous and exotic vegetation.
In the more sheltered and sunnier areas, there are the Italian terraced gardens which develop horizontally. Right there, the gardeners skillfully prune box hedges (Buxus sempervirens), placed in contrast with the vertical arrangement of badgers (Taxus baccata).
The villa and the garden offer one of the best sights on the promontory particularly prominent in the Lake Como.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)