Grand Hotel Fasano

The poets and painters who came to Grand Hotel Fasano landed at its pier, and it still runs out from a stone balustrade into Lake Garda, a lamp post at either side of its end and the hills of the far shore behind. The house was a hunting lodge for the Austrian imperial family before it became a hotel in 1888. It was looted in both world wars and restored in 1948. Gabriele D'Annunzio was among its most loyal guests, for the garden above all, and his own house at Il Vittoriale is fifteen minutes' walk away. The garden runs to about 12,000 square metres of palms and banana trees, with a willow trailing over the loungers at the water's edge. Book a room that faces the lake head on; four of the seven categories do. The Standards are in Villa Principe, the old staff house, where the view is partial or missing, as staff views tend to be.

Recommended for couples after a grand hotel of the old school, with the lake at the bottom of the garden, and for families who can do without a kids' club: there is none, but there is babysitting, and children may use both pools with an adult. The shingle beach is five minutes through the gardens. For the lake the concierge will arrange a historic sailing ship or a Riva motorboat, and for the roads a vintage Fiat Topolino. Dinner is under century-old magnolias at Magnolia, or at Il Fagiano, where Maurizio Bufi cooks. Fagiano is Italian for pheasant, which is a brave thing to call the restaurant of a hunting lodge. The pheasant has come out of it with a Michelin star.