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Lodovico “Il Moro” Sforza (1452–1508) was born in the castle that dominates this town of silk and shoe factories. The arcaded Piazza Ducale was designed by Bramante; the Baroque Duomo was built in 1680.

Owing its beauty and fame to three owners, the villa itself was begun in 1643 for Giorgio Clerici. In 1801 it passed to lawyer Gian Battista Sommariva, and he filled it with Neo-Classical sculptures and Romantic paintings. The former include Palamede by Canova and Cupid and Psyche by his student Tadolini; the latter a famed Last Kiss of Romeo and Juliet by Francesco Hayez, master of stolen-kiss scenes. In 1847 it passed to the Prussian Princess Carlotta, who lent it her name while her husband, Prince Giorgio di Sassonia-Meiningen, furnished it in Empire style. He also created the magnificent botanical gardens (see Villa Carlotta, Tremezzo).

The Cipressi villa has been altered throughout its 600-year life, though what you see today is largely 19th century. Its gardens are modest compared to others (including neighbour Villa Monastero), but unlike most other villas on the lake, you can make this one your home – temporarily – since it’s now a hotel. For more, (see Villa Cipressi, Lake Como).

This blissful villa – a former convent – has gardens that stretch right down to the banks of the lake, wonderfully shaded throughout by the canopies of cypresses and palms (see Villa Monastero, Lake Como).

The most important late Imperial villa remaining in Northern Italy was built in the 1st century BC, but the excellent polychrome floor mosaics are mostly of the 4th and 5th centuries. By that time, the local Romans were Christianized, which explains the late 4th-century glass bowl engraved with an image of Christ.

Bellagio’s promontory has been prime real estate for millennia. Pliny the Younger had a villa named “Tragedy” here (it matched a “Comedy” home on the far shore), replaced by a castle in the Middle Ages, then a Stagna family villa in the 15th century. The last Stagna left it to his best friend Serbelloni in 1788. Serbelloni proceded to rebuild the villa as a summer residence to the main house down in the village (now the Villa Serbelloni hotel (see Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, Bellagio). In 1959, the summer home passed to the Rockefeller Foundation, and now visiting scholars can live and study here for short periods. It is not open to the public, but you can tour the gardens (see Villa Serbelloni, Lake Como).