Passalacqua

Norma and La Sonnambula were both in hand at this villa in Moltrasio in 1829, when Vincenzo Bellini was living here, and one of its suites is named after him. Count Andrea Lucini Passalacqua had it built in 1787, and seven acres of garden step down from it to the hotel's own jetty: cedars and magnolias centuries old, topiary clipped into domes, an oval fountain of water lilies behind an iron rail, and a pool ringed with scalloped parasols, with the lake and its wooded mountains beyond. The 24 rooms are shared between three buildings: twelve in the villa, among frescoes and stucco, eight under the beams of the Palazz, the old stables, and four in Casa al Lago, each with a garden of its own. Inside, a gilt headboard curls over faded blue damask, and in one hallway white busts stand on plinths below rows of gilt frames, several hung empty, as if the pictures were still being chosen.

Recommended for couples who want a lake villa run like a private house, where lunch and dinner arrive whenever and wherever on the grounds they are wanted; children are taken in, with cots and babysitting, but there is no kids club, and the 18th-century house is hard going for anyone with limited mobility. Viviana Varese's kitchen cooks home-style Italian food from what the garden gave that day, and guests may wander in. In the Palazz, the indoor pool fills what was an underground tunnel. Down at the jetty, Beppe the boatman takes guests out in Giumello and Didi, two vintage Rivas, and Como's Duomo is about 33 minutes away by ferry. Back up the garden is a henhouse where guests can collect their own eggs: the one chore left in a house that does everything else.