Villa del Balbianello
ACCOMODATIONS: No
CAPACITY: 150 Lakeside Terrace, 60 Loggia Segre
BOAT ACCESS: Yes
HOTELS NEARBY: Villa D'Este, Grand Hotel Tremezzo
INVESTMENT: $$$$
DISTANCE FROM COMO CITY CENTER: 37km
INSTAGRAM: @villadelbalbianello
Villa del Balbianello is located in Lenno, a small village on Lake Como, it is located on the tip of the small wooded peninsula of Dosso d'Avedo where a monastery existed since the 13th century. In 1785 Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini purchased it to convert it to his Summer residence. After Durini’s death, Villa del Balbianello was taken over by his nephew, Luigi Porro Lambertenghi, an Italian nationalist, businessman, and politician who then sold the villa to Giuseppe Arconati Visconti, grandfather of Luchino Visconti, a cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. During the Visconti ownership, the villa hosted politicians and writers such as Alessandro Manzoni. Visconti made improvements to its gardens and the loggia.
In 1919 Butler Ames, an American politician, engineer, soldier and businessman purchased the villa and renovated it.
The last owner, Monzino, an Italian mountain climber and explorer, who died in 1988 left the villa to the Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano (FAI), the National Trust of Italy who commenced a €400,000 project to restore and improve the villa’s in 2016.
Villa del Balbianello appeared in different movies such as Casino Royale and Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones. In November 2018 Indian movie star and Bollywood's famous couple Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone's wedding took place at the villa.
