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Italian Lakes hotels
The Italian Lakes have been a popular vacation spot since ancient Roman times, and the hotels along their shores cater to an upscale clientele. Think extravagant Renaissance or neoclassical villas transformed into post-modern jet-setter boutique hotels, Grand Tour–era hotels built as Belle Époque palaces, and lakeside houses converted to family-run inns. Napoleon and Mussolini spent time here, and now you're more likely to see Madonna or Lake Como's most famous part-time resident, George Clooney. The top-flight luxury hotels like Villa Feltrinelli and Villa d'Este tend to attract people who don't blink at four-figure room rates. Those of slightly lesser means (which, in the chichi Italian Lakes, means the upper middle class) patronize the less expensive hotels like Albergo Milano and Villa Crespi. The season runs from around Easter to October, and this is not a place to travel off-season in order to avoid the crowds. Three quarters of the hotels and restaurants on the lakes shut down in winter.
The Milano was simply a poky little pensione with a million-dollar lakeside view until 2002. That's when Bettina Mallone and her Swiss husband, Egidio,...more
Villa Roccabruna, the home of soprano Giuditta Pasta, muse of the nineteenth-century composer Vincenzo Bellini, has been transformed into the CastaDiva Resort,...more
D. H. Lawrence stayed here in 1912 and 1913 and deemed it "one of the most beautiful places on earth." The Liberty-style villa was built in 1892 and was...more
A hotel famous since 1861 and featured prominently in Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms might be content to rest on its reputation. Luckily, Iles Borromées...more
This grandiose 1850s villa has been the place to stay in Bellagio since 1873. Its location is perfect, flanked on one side by the town's central square and on...more
This bloodred villa at the very tip of Fishermen's Island is a short ferry ride from the main town of Stresa. The 12 rooms are named after flowers, but don't...more
Sometimes to get the best lake views, you have to leave the shores and drive a few miles up into the surrounding mountains. I Due Roccoli, set in a quiet park,...more
Imagine a grand neo-Palladian villa set atop ten acres of lush and carefully landscaped grounds as only a wealthy 19th-century Austrian baron and confirmed...more
This fabulously odd Moorish-style villa built in 1879 is easy to find: Just look for the onion-domed minaret towering above the pine trees. The interiors are...more
Everything about this grande dame of lakeside hotels oozes luxury. Rooms have enormous marble bathrooms and walk-in closets and most have a balcony or terrace....more
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