In the 16th century, Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio built a luxury villa on the shore of Lake Como as his private residence. For the next 200 years, the party-loving elite of Europe came here for a good time. Growing bored with the property, the Gallio family moved away, leaving the neglected villa to the Jesuits.

A Milano aristocrat, up there in years, bought the estate for his new wife, a ballerina at La Scala named Vittoria Peluso. She sunk a small fortune in refurbishing the villa, and the local society, who once stuck their collective noses up at her, now begged for invitations. Following the death of her husband, she married a young general under Napoleon and now became known as Countess Pino. To keep her young husband at home, she built special towers and fortresses for him. Following war games with his fellow cadets, Roman-style feasts would inevitably follow.

Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Princess of Wales, unhappy in her marriage to the future King George IV of England, fell in love with the estate and demanded the Countess Pino sell to her. Caroline renamed it the Villa d’Este, poured money into it, and held scandalous parties. When she ran out of money she returned to England to take her place beside her husband, who filed proceedings against her. Caroline died a year later. Against the terms of her will, the banker, who possessed the deed of sale, took title. His heirs sold the property.

In 1873 the Villa d’Este opened its doors as a hotel.

Pamela’s Perspective

You get what you pay for! This is the kind of place that’s worth working an extra job for. It’s truly wonderful. Between activities at the hotel and the precious little spots along the lake worthy of exploration, you really hate to waste time sleeping.

For the penny pinchers among us: There are public buses and boats that ply around and across the lake. Don’t feel you have to pay inflated hotel prices for an excursion to Bellagio, for example. You can easily do it on your own.