While on a trip to Lake Como, we decided to take a tour up the lake from our base in the city of Como. We talked with a guide we had used for a quick city tour. She recommended a fast boat up to Villa de Balbianello, a state preserve of Italy which has been a location for various films, and a short visit to Bellagio. She got our attention by telling us she would point out George Clooney’s home on the lake. While that was interesting but not selling news to me, Karen was all in. The guide finished the sell job by suggesting we could have a little more time in Bellagio if we took the last boat back at 7:05. It was a slow boat, but did not stop along the way, reducing the normal return time to ninety minutes. Supposedly the sun setting on the way back was going to be romantic. Hmmm.
The trip up did in fact go by George Clooney’s three homes. The original house was purchased in 2003 and has a large garden behind it, but along the lake. Later he bought the property at the other end of the garden for a guest house and finally a third property across the street that is a studio of some sort. Interesting, but not a property you would pick out from the thousand or so along the way.
Villa Balbianello is a very interesting place. It was constructed on a rock, including gardens that were built up over the centuries. The property has several structures including one with only two rooms and an open-air walkway between. On one end is a library with an escape stairwell that had been dug out of solid granite. The other room is a sitting room with various pictures of the lake upon the walls and currently a dining table set for six.
What makes Villa Balbianello a current attraction is that it was used as a location for a scene from James Bond’s Casino Royale… the one with Daniel Craig, on a lower lawn where we watched a couple get engaged. The other scene was of Luke Skywalker walking up a staircase in the Mandalorian. Our guide showed us the clips on her cellphone. The James Bond scene was instantly recognizable. For the Mandalorian scene, computer graphics changed the look of the villa into a futuristic site. It was a quick boat ride out from the ferry dock and a longer walk back, but the gardens were spectacular and the villa itself unusual as to how the many owners had transformed it over the years.
A quick ferry to Bellagio dropped us right in front of Hotel Suisse, whose outdoor restaurant is a favorite of ours. They have a huge parmesan cheese wheel they use to finish their fettuccini. Of course, three of the four of us had that for lunch along with a bottle of a Felsina I Sistri Chardonnay Collezione Privata 2019. What we found interesting about this wine is it combines Chardonnay with Sauvignon Blanc to create a lighter Chardonnay, which went very well with the thick cut pasta with creamy cheese sauce. The waiter added black truffles to make the perfect dinner.
After our great meal, we wandered the short distance along the waterfront to the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, where Karen and I stayed on our last trip to Bellagio. The old hotel reputedly was used as the inspiration for the Wes Anderson movie Grand Budapest Hotel. It sits right on the point of the Lake Como wishbone (the shape of the lake) and you can look up the water to Switzerland and the snow-covered immense Alps. It is awesome in the literal sense. We walked through the lobby and into the lounge, which kept the grandeur of late 1800s and early 1900s. One member of our party remarked that the rich people certainly knew how to live.
The cruise home was leisurely, the temperature stayed warm enough and the wind was under control. We watched the sun creep up the sides of the mountains and say good-bye.
