· 6 min read · by Salimar Boat Tour
Villa Erba in Cernobbio, Luchino Visconti's villa
Just after Villa d'Este, still in Cernobbio, a park opens up that from the water seems never to end: it is the only completely flat villa park on Lake Como, fifteen hectares within an estate of over one hundred thousand square metres. At the far end stands an eclectic villa with a belvedere tower more than thirty metres high. This is Villa Erba, and its story is tied to one of the great names of Italian cinema.
The pharmaceutical family's villa
Where the villa stands today there was once a monastery, later a property of the Peluso family — the same family that owned Villa d'Este. The present building was commissioned by Luigi Erba, brother and heir of the pharmaceutical industrialist Carlo Erba, and built between 1892 and 1900, with works completed around 1903.
It was designed by Milanese architects Angelo Savoldi and Giovan Battista Borsani in a Renaissance-eclectic style inspired by Galeazzo Alessi. Two floors plus the belvedere tower, interiors decorated by Angelo Lorenzoli with frescoes by Ernesto Fontana.
Luchino Visconti's childhood summers
Luigi Erba had a daughter, Carla (1880-1939), who married Duke Giuseppe Visconti di Modrone. Their son was Luchino Visconti, born in 1906, director of The Leopard and Death in Venice. As a boy he spent his summers here.
On Carla's death in 1939 the estate passed to her son Guido, then to his heirs. In 1986 the Visconti family sold it to a public consortium: today it belongs to Villa Erba S.p.A. One clarification is worth making: Luchino Visconti never personally owned the villa — he lived here as a child through his mother's family. He did return in 1972, when a dedicated editing room was built for him to finish Ludwig.
What is there today
- The Villa Antica, with the museum "Le Stanze di Luchino Visconti", opened in 2005 and now renewed as a multimedia experience
- A glass-and-steel exhibition centre designed by Mario Bellini, inspired by the lake's greenhouses
- A central circular pavilion of about 1,480 square metres, holding up to 1,400-1,600 people
- Three wings — Lario, Cernobbio and Regina — of about 2,000 square metres each
- Fifteen hectares of park with a botanical trail and box-topiary parterre
It hosts fairs such as Proposte, the Orticolario festival, the public days of the Concorso d'Eleganza, conventions and weddings.
Cinema and advertising
The scenes at the mansion of the "Night Fox", Vincent Cassel's character in Ocean's Twelve (2004), were filmed here. And this is where the Nespresso "What else?" ad with George Clooney and Jean Dujardin was shot — while another Clooney Nespresso ad, the one with Jack Black, was filmed at a nearby villa, not Villa Erba.
Gwen Stefani also shot the video for Cool here in 2005, and Sam Smith the video for Pray.
How to see it
Unlike Villa d'Este, Villa Erba can be visited: the Visconti museum is open, and during fairs and events the park opens to the public. From the water, though, you catch something you miss from land — the flat sweep of the park all the way to the villa, which is exactly why this place is chosen for big events.
