Passalacqua
Moltrasio, Italy
★ Verified by our editors · October 2026
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The verdict
A villa built at the end of the 18th century by Carlo Felice Soave for Count Andrea Lucini-Passalacqua, at Moltrasio on the western shore of Lake Como, where Vincenzo Bellini composed La Sonnambula. The De Santis family, who also own the Grand Hotel Tremezzo, opened it as a hotel in 2022: twenty-four suites in three buildings, terraced 18th-century gardens down to the water, and a spa with a secret tunnel dug beneath them. The only hotel on Lake Como with three MICHELIN Keys.
Lake Como at its most romantic: a villa, a garden, a pool and a wooden launch at the bottom of the steps.
You want a large resort with lots going on: this is a house of twenty-four suites, run like a private villa.
Take one of the hotel's wooden launches to Bellagio or the gardens of Villa del Balbianello, and come back for dinner cooked by Viviana Varese.
The rooms
Twenty-four suites, every one different, in the Villa, with its frescoes and stucco; the Palazz behind it, the old stables; and the Casa al Lago, by the water, with its own gardens.
The setting
On the terraced hillside of Moltrasio, near Como, facing south and east so the gardens have sun from morning to evening. The pool sits on a garden terrace below the villa; the kitchen garden, a bocce court, the hens and an olive grove are all part of the estate.
The food
Viviana Varese cooks 'grand villa' Italian food: gourmet dinners, long lunches outdoors and light plates at La Double J, the pool bar, with produce from the garden and impromptu pasta lessons.
Getting there
Moltrasio is on the western shore a short drive north of Como; the hotel's launches cover the lake.
Good to know
The spa occupies the vaulted ground floor of the Palazz, with an indoor pool in an underground gallery dug in the 18th century. The three Keys are those of the Guide's 2026 selection.
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Passalacqua
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