We stayed at this property for one week in June 2013 as part of a touring holiday of Northern Italy. It is located about 6 km from the town of Bellagio and overlooks Lake Como. The property is situated on a side road up from the main road that runs between Lecco and Bellagio. Like many of the villas in this area reaching it involves climbing a couple of dozen steps but it is well worth it for the view over the lake. It’s very tastefully furnished with a small but adequate kitchen, two bedrooms one of which has a balcony which overlooks the lake. It also has a good cool clean cellar with a table tennis table (but bring your own table tennis balls) and a second bathroom with a good shower. For the technophobes there is a reasonably fast Wi-Fi connection ( I used it to listen to the BBC news). It has a small but usable garden with a table and four chairs to sit on to enjoy the sunshine. We found that the best way to keep the house cool was to close the shutters when we went out. There is a good spot just outside the property to park the car but as I mentioned earlier, access is via a couple of dozen steps which must be negotiated with your cases etc.

You can reach Bellagio, with its restaurants and tourist shops in about 10 minutes. The main parking in Bellagio is situated on the main road into the town, about 100 metres from the first cafes and the ferry (parking costs 1.5 Eu per hour – coins only). Probably the best way to get around is to use the ferries which go virtually everywhere on the Lake. The is also a decent supermarket in Bellagio which is off a side turning on the left once you are in the outskirts of the town.

There is also a pleasant shore line and a small nice beach just a few miles south along the road back to Lecco and a few decent restaurants. We swam in the lake which was surprisingly warm and very clean.

Just a few words about getting there. The road along the edge of the lake between Lecco and Bellagio (the SS583) is quite twisty and very narrow in parts and although it is quite drivable, it is not the easiest of roads . An easier (but slower route) is to drive North from Como on the SS340 along the most Western shore of the lake up to Cadenabbia or Menaggio and then get the ferry to Bellagio (which costs about 18 Eu).