Villa Carlotta on Lake Como

I knew on our Italy roadtrip this past Fall one of the big thing I wanted to do in Lake Como was to see some of the famous villas. It only took a few minutes of research to realize there are almost 100 villas dotted along the 160km of the lakes share line and based on where you are staying you need to choose carefully. However, when Villa Carlotta kept popping up on nearly every top ten list I made sure it was on our itinerary.

On our second morning in Lake Como we took the ferry up to Tremezzo on west side of Lake Como and made the ten minute walk to the villa.  We then approached the massive front gates and peaked in at the gardens before we put on our masks, scanned our tickets, and entered the botanical garden. We opted for the long route around the lush green grounds via the ‘Complete Itinerary Garden Tour’.  Of all of the greenery my favorite was the olive grove which had a splendid view of Northern Italy. 

After the gardens we followed the clearly marked one way path and entered the villa which has been turned into a museum. We were able to tour all of the rooms on the ground floor and while nearly all were empty the walls had many pieces of art including works by Hayez, Canova, Thorvaldsen, and Migliara. Throughout our whole visit I tried to keep moving to ensure we were socially distanced at all times but hopefully you can still get a sense of the villa from the photos I was able to snap.   I have checked on the official website and as of January 2021 it is closed due to COVID regulations but if you are planning a visit I suggest checking the opening times. And if it is open a helpful note, the entrance closes one hour before closing time and the last ticked time is half an hour before that.

Would you want to visit Villa Carlotta?