Europe - Anyone ever stay at Villa D'Este on Lake Como?

My wife and I are going to be here over a weekend in July and was wondering if anyon can give us any feedback on this property, as well as its Spa, as we booked the spa packgage at this hotel which provides for three (3) treatments per person.

In addition, if anyone cares to provide their favorite "whatever" in and around any of the various lakes in the Itallian Lake District, we would be most appreciative.

Thank you!

You might want to pose this question on the Luxury Hotels forum.

obscure2k:


Thank you. I neve thought to search there and my search here came up with zilch.

I will post in both places and look to see if there are any responses.

I recommend going to Slow Traveler's and Fodor's forums. Have a great trip. I just returned from Como and loved it (it was way tooooooooo HOT though).

We stayed there for just one night about five years ago and its a really great hotel with a fabulous restuarant located in one of my favourite regions in all Europe.
The property often turns up regularly listed in the top 10 hotels in all Europe and is actually in Cernobbio a few miles from the town of Como itself.
The dining room faces the lake directly and you can dine on the outside patio as you watch the small ferry/water taxi boats as they stop at each small town.
Evey time Italy comes up my wife mentions the place.

Lake Como is a blue, very deep, L shaped lake with lots of small villages and expensive villas sort of clinging to the steep hill-sides. There is good coverage by the ferries some which do a circle trip to most of the lakeside towns so stopping at places of your choice is not a problem.
But you are much better off doing your exploring by car. There is a beautiful, winding but often very narrow roads (you will have to back up in places to let buses or trucks pass)which circles the lake often at elevations which make for spectacular scenery take you time as you are not going to be zippping along on these roads

IMHO a few places not to miss:
1) The Finicular at Brunate which gives spectacular panorama of the entire region.
2) Villa Carllota with fantastic formal gradens situated on a slope which can be seen even from the opposite side of the lake.
The interior of the villa has a large collection of sculpture.
3) Bellagio (considered by some the most beautiful town in Europe) located at the apex of the two lake legs.
The place makes the Las Vegas casino of the same name look like a joke.
We were quite sad to leave the region after two day visit but had to met some friends in Bologna.
We plan go back perhaps next year on our way to visit Venice again.
mike
Edited to add sorry I cannot comment on the spa since we did not visit that part of the property.



[This message has been edited by MIKESILV (edited 06-21-2003).]

MIKESILV:

You have been more than generous with the thorough review that you have provided and I am very much in your debt.

My wife always has wanted to go there and she desired to do so this trip as we will be in the vicinity. I happen to love deep water lakes surrounded by mountains so I am sure that I, too, will love the area, although the price is absolutely bankrupting!

However, inasmuch as she has had a very busy and profitable year as she is a bankruptcy attorney, the cost will much sooner dissipate as opposed to the memories.

As I am not a spa kinda of person, I will provide you with her feedback on the spa, so that perhaps you would like to surprise your wife some day with a trip again to the hotel.

It also does not hurt that there are many factory outlets nearby. Many speak of the Gucci and Prada outlets in Montevarchi near to Florence, but obvioulsy they don't hold all that much appeal to me.

On the other hand, the Armani outlet near Como, well, that is a whole different story!

Thank you again for your comments!