Lake Como


Lake Como, a land to discover, rich of culture, history, nature, luxury villas and magnificent views.

The Locanda Grifo is a local restaurant and hotel located in Campo, historical village part of Lenno, on Lake Como.

In this page you will find some suggestion about what to do and visit nearby our Locanda.


Villa Balbiano

Fascinating villa of the seventeenth century, located near the mouth of the river Perlana and directly overlooking Lake Como. Built by Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio, it was then renovated by Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini in 1787 who transformed it into his private residence and moved there his rich library and art collections.

The villa is surrounded by a centuries-old park with indoor and outdoor swimming pool and has recently been renovated by the famous French designer Jacques Garciain following a new acquisition that has added to the existing park, an Italian garden and another adjacent green area including the swimming pool. Villa Balbiano, with its large garden occupying 2 hectares, is the largest private residence on the lake.

The Villa boasts important historical details such as the spectacular 17th century frescoes by the Recchi brothers and Agostino Silva and is one of the most prestigious locations for luxury weddings on Lake Como.


Casa Brenna Tosatto

Casa Brenna Tosatto is a liberty dwelling house of the early years of the twentieth century. It is a place where history, culture, art, landscape, painting have created a unique residence with its artistic sense. It is a special place where to reside, attend events and spend a good time.

Casa Brenna Tosatto is in Campo di Lenno, situated on the western branch of the Lake Como, an area which offers wonderful natural landscapes and rare examples of architectural and artistic history.

Source – Official website: casabrennatosatto.it


Comacina Island

Comacina Island is a strip of land (length 600 m, width 200 m, perimeter 2 km, area 7.5 hectares) surrounded by Lake Como.

It is located in the municipality of Ossuccio, in correspondence of the inlet of the western coast of the Como branch between Argegno and the Peninsula of Lavedo, in the waters in front of the Zoca de l’oli (oil basin): the northernmost territory of Italy where, in a particularly mild climate, olive trees are cultivated and olive oil is produced.

Considered one of the most extraordinary archaeological sites in northern Italy for the High Middle Ages, the Comacina Island has regained the glory of its past thanks to the excavation campaigns carried out during the 1900s. These have brought to light an archaeological palimpsest of exceptional interest, dating from Roman times to the sixteenth century.

Sito ufficiale: isola-comacina.it


The Sacred Mount of Ossuccio

Situated on the western shore of the Como Lake, the Sacred Mount of Ossuccio has notable scenic value. The devotional complex sits on a slope immediately behind the town of Ossuccio (419m. a.s.l.), opposite Comacina Island, in a splendid panoramic position on the lake.

The construction work of this Sacred Mount began in 1635 at the 16th century sanctuary of the Madonna del Soccorso. The founders or promoters are not known, but the devotional complex seems to have been started on the initiative of the Franciscans and the local noble families.

The Sacred Mount consists of fifteen chapels, dedicated to the Mysteries of the Rosary, built between 1635 and 1710. The chapels are distributed along a climbing path that leads to the sanctuary of the Madonna del Soccorso, in which the last aedicula is located. The set of chapels, surrounded by vegetation and connected by a paved road that passes through olive orchards, gives the complex great harmony between architecture and the surrounding landscape.

Source: sacrimonti.net


Villa Balbianello

The villa was built in 1787 on the site of a Franciscan monastery for the Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini. The two towers which can be seen in the picture are the campanili of the convent church. After the cardinal’s death in 1796 Giuseppe Arconati Visconti bought the villa and made improvements to its gardens and the loggia.

In the nineteenth century the villa belonged to the Porro-Lambertenghi family. The writer and patriot Silvio Pellico was a visitor in 1819.

By the early twentieth century the buildings had fallen into a state of neglect when an American businessman, Butler Ames, purchased and renovated the villa and its garden. In 1974 it was bought by the explorer Guido Monzino (leader of the first Italian expedition to climb Mount Everest), who filled it with rich collections, including artifacts acquired on his expeditions. Monzino, who died in 1988, left the villa to the Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano, the National Trust of Italy. Its grounds now form part of the Grandi Giardini Italiani.

Source: wilkipedia.org


Villa Carlotta

Villa Carlotta is a place of rare beauty, where masterpieces of nature and art live together in perfect harmony in over 70.000 square metres of gardens and museum. The beautiful villa was built at the end of XVII century by the Milanese marquis Giorgio Clerici in a natural basin between lake and mountains, facing the dolomite Grignas and the peninsula of Bellagio.

The architect created for the Clericis an important but sober building, with an Italian garden decorated with sculptures, stairs and fountains. In 1801 Gian Battista Sommariva, famous politician, businessman and patron of arts, bought the villa. Thanks to this owner the property in Tremezzo attained the summit of its splendour and became one of the most important halting-place of the Grand Tour.

The villa became a temple of XIX century art with works of Canova, Thorvaldsen and Hayez: Palamedes, Eros and Psyche, Terpsychore, The last kiss of Romeo and Juliet are only some of the masterpieces that enriches the extraordinary collection. Under Sommariva part of the park was transformed in a fascinating romantic garden. Sommariva’s heirs sold the villa in 1843 to Princess Marianne of Nassau, Albert’s of Prussia wife, who gave it as a present to her daughter Carlotta in occasion of her wedding with Georg II of Saxen-Meiningen. Hence the name Villa Carlotta.

Very fond in botanic, Georg enriched the park, today of great historical and environmental value. The gardens of Villa Carlotta chiefly owe their reputation to the rhododendrons’ and azaleas’ spring flowering, consisting of over 150 different sorts. But the gardens are worth to visit in every period of the year: old varieties of camellias, century old cedars and sequoias, huge planes and tropical plants, the Rock garden and the Ferns valley, the Rhododendrons wood and the Bamboos garden, the agricultural tools museum and the wonderful views on the lake built in the ages the celebrity of this place, still today consider “a place of heaven”.

Fonte – Sito ufficiale: villacarlotta.it


Villa Melzi

Villa Melzi d’Eril is a private historical residence located in the town of Bellagio, owned by the Melzi d’Eril family, today of its Gallarati Scotti branch, proclaimed, with the surrounding property, a national monument.

The complex was built between 1808 and 1810 for Francesco Melzi d’Eril, duke of Lodi and vice president of the Italian Republic with Napoleon. He entrusted the task to the architect and decorator Giocondo Albertolli, of neoclassical tendencies.

Summer residence of Duke Melzi d’Eril at the end of his political career and his summer residence until his death, the villa was decorated and furnished by the most famous artists of the time: in addition to Albertolli, author of most of the furnishings and interior decoration, there are the painters Andrea Appiani and Giuseppe Bossi, the stage designer Alessandro Sanquirico, the sculptors Antonio Canova, Giovan Battista Comolli, Pompeo Marchesi, and the bronze artist Luigi Manfredini.

The facade of the villa, simple and regular, is enriched by a double flight of stairs and four Egyptian style lions. At the sides of the terrace and the parterre on the lake stand two marble statues of the sixteenth century, representing Apollo and Meleagro, already attributed to the sculptor Guglielmo della Porta.

Official website: giardinivillamelzi.it


Villa Serbelloni

Villa Serbelloni has a very ancient history, already property of the Sfondrati family in 1566, passed on to be property of Count Alessandro Serbelloni to whom he dedicated his soul and body. The external aspect, extensive but with simple lines, was not changed; the inside was carefully decorated, from the vaulted and coffered ceilings, to the paintings and pieces of art. The Duke Serbelloni, however, was more interested in the immense park than the villa, and spending exorbitant figures, had tracks suitable for vehicles, driveways, and paths build for an extension of nearly 18 km.

The Duke died in Bellagio, in 1826, the villa was passed onto his children, Giovan Battista and Ferdinando, and progressively fell into disuse after the death of them and their heirs.
In 1870 they rented the property to Antonio Mella who made it an annex of the Great Britain Hotel; in the end, in 1907 they sold it to a Swiss company who turned it into Albergo Serbelloni. The hotel was purchased by Princess Ella Walker who left it as an inheritance in 1959 to the Rockefeller foundation.

Today the villa is used as a place to stay and a meeting place for scholars.
Many were the illustrious guests who stayed in the villa, we can remember when it was still the property of the Sfonderati family: Emperor Massimiliano I, Leonardo da Vinci, Lodovico the Moor, Bianca Sforza, and Cardinal Borromeo.
In the 19 th century the rank of guests was impressive: Pellico, Moroncelli, Emperor Francesco I, Queen Vittoria, Kaiser Guglielmo, Umberto I; writers such as Manzoni, Grossi, Pindemonte.

Source: comoeilsuolago.it


Menaggio & Cadenabbia Golf Club

One of the most ancient Golf courses in Europe, it is the only one that embodies the great Golf tradition.

It presents it self like an out-and-out nook of old England between the Lake Como’s shores.
There are Club House and Library.

Fonte – Sito ufficiale: menaggio.it