Villa del Balbianello

On our second morning in Lake Como, we again headed down to the dock to meet the ferry, this time we sailed to the comune of Lenno.

We passed by an al fresco art class on our way to catch a water taxi to the Villa del Balbeianello.

Small signs of autumn!

The villa is on the tip of a deeply wooded peninsula and is only accessible by water taxi. V had a great time on this smaller type of boat.

She has the best silly faces.

The villa is known for it's magnificent, lush, terraced gardens, which are one of the first things you see when you exit the water taxi.

A wedding party arrived at the same time we did, what a gorgeous place to have a wedding!

The villa and it's gardens have been used in several movies. A couple of the most well known ones are Casnio Royal and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. It was easy to spot the exact spot where the worst lines in cinematic history were spoken ...

We had a little time to explore the gardens and the numerous balconies over looking the lake before meeting up with a tour to view the interior of the villa.

I bought this tin of candies because I thought the tin was too adorable to pass up. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the candies were actually really delicious, bonus!

The interior of the home is absolutely stunning, and has an interesting history. A Franciscan monastery had existed on the tip of the peninsula of Dosso d'Avedo since the 13th century.  After failing in his attempts to buy the nearby Isola Comacina Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini purchased the property in 1785. In 1787 he converted the monastery building into a villa for use during the summer and added a loggia, which allowed viewers to otain two different panoramas of the lake.

After the cardinal’s death in 1796, the villa passed to his nephew, Luigi Porro Lambertenghi. During Lambertenghi's ownership the villa became a seat of republican activity and members of the Carbonari met here to discuss the unification of Italy. Among Lambertenghi's guests at the villa were the writer and patriot Silvio Pellico, who tutored Lambertenghi's sons. In 1820 Pellico was arrested at the villa by the Austrian government which forced Lambertenghi to move to Belgium, where he was supported by the Arconati Visconti family.

Lambertenghi subsequently sold the villa to his friend, Giuseppe Arconati Visconti, grandfather of Luchino Visconti. Visconti made improvements to its gardens and the loggia. To this day the balustrade in front of the church bears the Visconti emblem of a serpent with a man in its mouth. The gradual decline of the family resulted in a lack of interest in the villa, which for more than 30 years was left to fall into a state of neglect...

Just prior to the commencement of World War I American businessman Butler Ames saw the villa for the first time. He made an offer to purchase it from the Arconati Visconti family and was initially rejected. He kept returning with ever-larger cash offers until in 1919 he was successful in obtaining ownership. Ames renovated the villa and its garden.

In 1974, Ames's heirs sold the villa to businessman and explorer Count Guido Monzino (leader of the first Italian expedition to climb Mount Everest). While Monzino left the exterior essentially unchanged he had the interior of the villa completely re-decorated, installing artifacts acquired on his expeditions as well as important pieces of English Georgian and French antique furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries, Beauvais tapestries, French boiseries and Oriental carpets. In addition after the assassination of Aldo Moro in 1978 by the Red Brigade. Monzino worried that he may be on their list, added a system of hidden passages, linking parts of the property.

Monzino died in 1988 and left the villa along with most of the Dosso d'Avedo and an endowment to pay for maintenance, to the Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano, the National Trust of Italy. Its grounds now form part of the Grandi Giardini Italiani.

The artifacts the count had collected in his travels were fascinating. We learned quite a bit about his exhibition of Mount Everest, the dog sled he used is also on display at the villa. He sounded like such an interesting individual.

The Count, and owner of the villa, is the man in the middle.

One of the many items the count collected were reverse paintings on glass. The art of painting in reverse on glass goes back centuries. Widely used to make religious icons in the Byzantine Empire, this unique art form spread throughout Europe as an affordable, yet beautiful alternative to more expensive sacred art. 

Reverse painted glass has an unexpected depth to it, and it almost seems to glow when illuminated by candlelight. Each piece is done back to front: details painted first, then shading, then larger color areas, and finally a background color. It is a skill that requires great care and precision, as the visual surface is painted first then layered over. There is absolutely no room for mistakes.

The reverse glass paintings the count had collect were extremely detailed, I was blown away to think all of these pieces were painted backwards and with the fine details painted first.

After our delightful time at the Villa del Balbianello, we headed back to the main part of the town of Lenno to take a peek inside the Grand Hotel and perhaps have dinner there.

Vienne and I were both excited to find a very unexpected candy bar in the elegant lobby.

We made our way to the whimsical lounge where we decided to warm up with a cup of hot chocolate and a few treats while we waited for the main dining room to open.

In the end, we weren't able to get a reservation to have dinner at the Grand Hotel. So we headed back to the dock to catch the ferry home to Verenna. By now it was dark, very cold, very rainy and we were all a little (more like very) hangry. We had just barely missed the ferry, thus had to wait an extra long time for the next ferry home. Luckily, there was an itty, bitty waiting room that was heated for us to wait in. We were a gloomy bunch. We were the only ones in the "waiting room" along with a beat up, broken office chair. Vienne, our little ray of sunshine, wanted to take turns spinning around on the office chair. At first, we were all a little grossed out by the idea, who knows where the chair had been or where it came from. But V persisted, so we all took turns taking her for rides on the dirty, old office chair. Within minutes, we were all laughing and having such a wonderful time, and it is one of our favorite memories of the trip. V always makes adventures so much more fun, and knows how to find joy and happiness in the littlest of things, I was very grateful for her happy spirit that night. 

After numerous rides on our imaginary roller coaster, the ferry finally came, and we finally made it home to Varenna. We walked into the very first restaurant we saw, located right across from the dock. The restaurant was so warm and cozy and lit by candles on the tables and a few, small chandeliers, and it was just what we wanted on a cold, dark, rainy night. It was a family owned restaurant with delicious traditional, home made, Italian fare. We were treated like family and enjoyed our meal thoroughly.