EALA My Lakeside Dream

Eala, by the hotel's account, is a swan of Celtic myth that grants the power to interpret dreams, which accounts for the rest of the name. The Risatti family began with a plainer one: Vincenzo and his brother Italo started building the Hotel Panorama on the shore at Limone in 1952, and in 2019 the family rebuilt it as EALA, with the swan worked into it. At the entrance, white walls curve and overlap like the feathers of a folded wing. On the lake side the building climbs in terraces against a sheer face of limestone, with trees along its balconies, and the rooms look out over the water from terraces of their own. The suites keep to grey stone and dark wood, and in some the bathroom is walled in glass, so the view from the basin runs through the bedroom to the lake.

Recommended for grown-ups, since nobody under 16 is taken, and for a day divided between the spa and the lake. The spa runs to 1,500 square metres, with three heated pools: the infinity pool outside and a panoramic one indoors at 32°C, and the multisensory Respiro del Garda at 37°C. The Finnish sauna goes up to 100°C and the ice room down to 2°C, which gives the afternoon some range. The lake itself is at the end of the gardens, off a private beach. Limone's old town is five minutes by car, with its harbour and its limonaie, stone-and-timber houses built to see the lemon trees through the winter; here a lemon tree on the terrace makes do with a planter. Dinner is Senso, which holds a Michelin star and has its dining room out over the water. The bar is called Panorama, which is where the old hotel's name went.