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The Jewish Chronicle

Hotel Review: Villa D’Este, Lake Como, Italy

A hotel built from a royal rift has become home to the stars.

June 17, 2009 15:46
Tranquility on tap: a hilltop view of the 136-year-old Villa D’Este with its gardens and floating pool

ByJan Shure, Jan Shure

5 min read

George IV is indirectly responsible for much of the sheer fabulousness that is Villa D’Este, the legendary Italian hotel on the shores of Lake Como. If, as Prince of Wales in 1795, he had not rejected his bride, Princess Caroline of Brunswick, within months of their wedding, his neglected wife would not have sought solace at this ravishing spot where the Dolomites meet the most northerly of Italy’s shimmering lakes.

And if the philandering, profligate prince had not continued to rebuff her, Caroline may not have bought the sprawling lakeside Villa D’Este from ballerina Vittoria Peluso, also the Marchioness Calderara.

Nor would Caroline have spent five years — and vast sums of money — manicuring, polishing and extending the vast house and gardens to transform it into one of the most sought-after residences in Europe.

However, if we really want to hand out plaudits for home improvements at Villa D’Este, it was the ballet-dancing marchioness, who was responsible for the earlier glamorisation of the property, adding terraces where previously the lake had almost lapped at the villa walls, creating the spectacular formal gardens and installing magnificent statuary and a series of mini-forts in the hills to prevent her second husband (a Napoleonic general she married after her Marquis died), from hankering after his military derring-do.