Villa Balbiano

The name Balbiano appears in a document of 941, but the palace you see from the lake today was begun after 1596, when Ottavio Giovio sold the property to Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio. The Gallio family built it over almost a century: a plaque records that in 1680 the Marchese Giacomo Gallio celebrated its completion, with the seventeenth-century stuccoes and frescoes by the Recchi brothers and Agostino Silva that still decorate the main rooms.

This is not a hotel imitating a villa: it is the villa, with a staff that cooks and serves only for the people sleeping in it.

In 1787 it was bought by Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini, who turned it into a literary salon frequented by the poet Giuseppe Parini and Milanese society, and who had a pavilion built on the point at Lenno that he called the "Balbianino": today's Villa del Balbianello, with which Villa Balbiano is still confused. After the changes of ownership of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, since 2011 the villa has been restored and refurnished under French decorator Jacques Garcia, and today it is rented only as a whole, staff included.

In 2021 Ridley Scott filmed the family-home scenes of "House of Gucci" here: since then it has been one of the most recognisable villas on the lake even for people who have never seen it in person.

Getting there

Villa Balbiano is in Ossuccio, since 2014 part of the municipality of Tremezzina, on the western shore of the Como branch of the lake, in Piazza Cardinal Durini. Como is about 25 kilometres away along the Regina, the lakeside road, or some twenty minutes by motorboat; Milan and Malpensa airport are just over an hour by car, Lugano airport under an hour. Seaplane arrivals take off from the Como seaplane base.

The most dramatic entrance remains the one from the water: the private jetty and the estate's two boathouses let you arrive and leave by boat without touching the road, which in high season is narrow and busy.

The palace, the wing and the Villino

The property is divided into three buildings. In the main palace, on four floors served by a lift, are the six suites decorated one by one by Jacques Garcia with antique furniture and objets d'art, the salon with the grand piano, the library and the indoor dining room for twelve. The side wing adds four bedrooms, the adjoining Villino another five: fifteen bedrooms in all.

The palace suites alone sleep up to twelve guests; with the wing and the Villino the capacity rises to around thirty, with small differences between the agencies that offer the villa (28 or 30 depending on the configuration). That detail separates a rental for an extended family from one for a group of friends: in the first case the palace is enough, in the second the outbuildings are needed too.

Pools, gym and shared spaces

There are two pools: an outdoor one of eight by fifteen metres overlooking the lake, and a heated indoor one with a whirlpool. The shared spaces also include a gym, a professional kitchen, a covered terrace with an original working fireplace and private access to the lake. The villa is air-conditioned, the lift makes it wheelchair-accessible, and pets are allowed on request.

The staff and the table

The rental includes a resident staff: a villa manager on call day and night, a private chef, waiting staff, housekeepers, gardeners and a night watchman. There is no restaurant in the sense of a room with a menu and other customers: there is a kitchen that works only for the guests of the house, with meals in the twelve-cover indoor dining room, on the terrace or in the garden. Wines and lake produce come through the chef, who sources and proposes them.

The award-winning garden

The park covers more than two hectares and was redesigned by the English practice Colson Stone. Designer Christian Sweet began with six months of historical research on maps, paintings and period photographs to understand how the original gardens were laid out, then divided them into "rooms": an ornamental kitchen garden, a rose garden, mixed shrub borders and a shaded vine walk. In 2017 the work won the Society of Garden Designers' award for historic garden restoration, praised for its attention to detail and quality of finish.

The water channel that cuts through the entrance lawn between the cypresses and clipped hedges is the first thing you see coming through the gate, and it is the image that opens this page.

When to go

The villa's season runs from spring to autumn: between April and October the lake is a pleasure to sail, the gardens are in flower and life moves outdoors. July and August are the most requested and hottest months; May, June and September offer the best balance of weather, light and quiet on the lake. Out of season the rental terms change and must be checked case by case.

Who it is for, and who it is not for

It is the right choice for an extended family or a group that wants a whole house, with the privacy of a walled estate on the lake and a staff that cooks, serves and keeps order without anyone having to organise anything; and for anyone who wants an address with a real history, not a hotel imitating one.

It is not the right choice for a couple wanting a weekend: the rental covers the entire property, the costs only make sense shared across a group, and the minimum stay changes with the season. And it is not a hotel: no reception, no restaurant open to others, no spa with a treatment menu.

Rates and conditions

The official website does not publish rates: they are given on request and cover exclusive hire of the whole property, staff included, with a separate security deposit. The agencies that offer the villa quote figures that differ from one another and minimum-stay conditions that change with the season: before comparing two quotes, ask exactly which buildings, how many guests and which services are included.