· 6 min read · by Salimar Boat Tour
Villa Pizzo, the longest garden on Lake Como
The promontory dividing Cernobbio from Moltrasio is called "Piz" in dialect, the point: hence the name of the villa that occupies all of it. From the boat you see the Cypress Avenue climbing, two docks, a monument among fake classical ruins and a green frontage that seems never to end. It is the longest private lakefront on Lake Como.
Almost six hundred years of history
It all starts on 9 July 1435, when Giovanni Muggiasca, a merchant from Como, buys land rich in vines and olive groves running from the lake up to the hills. In the 16th century Giovanni Battista Speciano, a Sforza lieutenant, builds an elegant villa on the original foundations.
The terracing that today's gardens rest on was created during the plague of 1629-1630, the one Manzoni described: the estate took in refugees, and it was they who built it. That detail explains the shape of the park better than any description.
The owners
- The Muggiasca family from 1435, for over four hundred years. The last heir, Giovanni Battista Muggiasca, Bishop of Como, provided much of the neoclassical furniture and on his death in 1842 left the villa to Como's Sant'Anna Hospital
- Archduke Rainer of Austria, Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia, who bought it at auction and brought in landscape architect Villoresi, the man behind the Royal Villa in Monza
- Madame Elise Musard, a Parisian noblewoman, from 1865: she redecorated the interiors in pink and yellow with Pompeii-inspired frescoes
- The Volpi-Bassani family from 1871, still the owners today
The park
About ten kilometres of avenues and paths across Italian- and English-style gardens. There are hundreds of rose varieties, some centennial, planted by the Marchioness Volpi Bassani, Japanese trees, orchids, agaves, 17th-century staircases, statues and baroque fountains. There is also the first monument dedicated to Alessandro Volta after his death in 1827, set among mock temple ruins.
There are two docks: the old one facing the Villa d'Este basin and the newer, grander one facing Moltrasio, built by the Volpi-Bassani along with the family mausoleum, designed by Luca Beltrami.
Can you visit it?
Yes, but by reservation and guided tour only: 15 euros for adults, 10 for under-18s and students, free under 10. Openings run roughly from March to October. It is not a hotel and you cannot stay overnight.
For weddings the spaces rent for roughly 10,000 to 40,000 euros depending on guest numbers; for 75-100 guests it is usually between 30,000 and 40,000. The dock terrace is included for weddings of 81 to 160 guests, while for smaller ones it costs 10,000 euros extra. John Legend and Chrissy Teigen were married here.
How to see it
From the road you barely notice the boundary wall. The villa and its park only open up from the water, and passing in front of the promontory is one of the finest stretches of the first basin. We cruise past it on every tour from Como.
A curious story
It is said that a struggling artist named Raimondi, unable to pay the Volpi family, left them a precious carillon bracket clock instead. It is still in the villa.
