Vogue Scandinavia checks into Bellagio's lone five-star dame Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, the family-run landmark that’s been defining Lake Como elegance for over a century. What we found was history, glamour, and a sense of calm (via the newly unveiled spa Luce del Lago) that lingers long after check-out
I’ve never been particularly geographically savvy. In my head, Lake Como was something like a badly drawn oval, ringed by the area's neoclassical structures and rolling hills. In reality, it stretches out like two long, lean legs, tapering south. At their meeting point lies Bellagio, a pleasure-filled peninsula that holds the best of everything: water on three sides, the Swiss alps at its back, and an ever-changing light.
Upon arrival, the lake was quiet and pewter-grey, the majestic landscape cloaked in low cloud. Then, almost imperceptibly, the weather turned. Within hours, the clouds lifted like a curtain. The light scattered like sequins on the water blazing silver, then blue; the hills flickered into focus; and there it was – that famous Bellagio view.
The commune of Bellagio reveals itself in layers. The waterfront gleams with varnished wooden boats and cafés spilling onto the promenade; palm trees grow improbably against snow-dusted peaks. As you climb the cobblestoned lanes that twist up from the water, the air shifts – orange blossom, espresso, damp stone. Every turn ends in a glimpse of blue or a courtyard just large enough for two chairs and a pair of Aperol spritzes. And at the pinnacle of it all commanding the most enviable position in town, stands Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni with its lemon-yellow façade.
Villa Serbelloni has stood in one form or another since the 15th century, though the structure we see today was built in the 1850s by Count Frizzoni as a birthday gift for his wife, an audacious gesture of devotion that seems fitting for this landscape. It became a grand hotel in 1873, and the Bucher family took it over soon after. For more than 150 years, they’ve preserved its splendour.
The Buchers, who have now run Villa Serbelloni for four generations, describe its recent admission to Relais & Châteaux as “a sixth star, invisible to the eye, but unmistakable to those who seek soul, not just luxury.” And soul is everywhere here. The family live within the hotel, which gives it a rare intimacy, a hum of daily life beneath all the grandeur. Jan Bucher oversees the whole operation – with a particular interest in the curation of the wine cellar, while his wife has taken charge of the newly-unveiled spa, Luce del Lago.
Luce del Lago feels like a secret tucked inside the villa’s heart. Designed by the Italian studio Silvia Giannini, it draws directly from the landscape outside: deep blue for the lake, blush pink for the sunsets, pale sand for the shore. The new Hammam and Private Spa Suite were conceived for small, cocooned rituals: couples, families, or friends who want to slow time. In the sauna, waves of sound and colour rise and fall like breath; the quartz-sand beds give off a soft heat and a quiet, luminous glow. Even the materials (real glass mosaic, hand-tooled leather, botanical embroidery) seem designed to soothe through touch alone. I left Luce de Lago the way Como’s weather had shifted hours earlier: from misty and heavy-headed to clear, lit from within.
After receiving the room key, I wandered inside the villa itself, where the grandeur is immediate. The ceilings are frescoed, the mirrors framed in gold leaf, the chandeliers pure Murano glass. You walk through the corridors and feel the weight of time: hundreds of hands that have touched the same winding banister, the countless conversations half-heard by the marble walls. The guest list reads like a cultural fever dream: Winston Churchill, Franz Liszt, Mary Shelley, Sofia Loren, John F. Kennedy – even a Queen of Sweden, whose visit lends her name to one of the hotel’s royal suites. Their portraits line the hallways, but nothing ever feels trapped in nostalgia.
It’s the presedential namesake suite where I’m staying. From the corner vista and balconies of the John F. Kennedy suite, the lake stretches out like glass, framed by fluttering curtains The furniture, all polished walnut and hand-carved detail, carries the scent of wax and time. You can’t help but wonder who else has woken up here, watching the same light move across the water.
One night, dinner was at the hotel’s Mistral restaurant, which also looks out over the lake. The menu is by Ettore Bocchia – a pioneer of Italian molecular cuisine who’s been at Villa Serbelloni for twenty years. After a series of near-transportive savoury courses, a chef appeared tableside with a bowl, a pour of vanilla cream, and a flask of liquid nitrogen. With a few brisk turns of the whisk, smoke curled across the table. Moments later, gelato appeared, still swirling with vapour, served on caramelised pineapple carpaccio.
After dinner, in the salon, a pianist played under the frescoed ceilings while the lake outside sank into the inky darkness. A martini arrived (perfectly cold and dry) with the unhurried precision that defines this place. I tried to take in the assault of beauty: the soft piano tunes – from the original fixture once played by Liszt, the art-filled walls the, the hum of conversation. The following morning, an entirely new discovery: Baci dal Lago, the hotel’s private beach club, a rarity on Lake Como. Where most hotels end in stone, this one gives way to sand. It’s the only property on the lake with a true beach, and it’s as charming as it sounds with striped parasols and charming staff.
Related: Step inside Vipp’s historic Lagrasse guesthouse, captured by Danish content creator Ella Karberg
Villa Serbelloni runs to its own rhythm. The hotel opens each spring and closes each autumn, just as it has for generations. The same family still lives within its walls. More than 150 years later, it remains the only five-star hotel in Bellagio and one of the oldest on Lake Como – a landmark that has survived by staying exactly itself.
Inside, history isn’t something preserved behind glass. The grand staircase, the Liszt piano, the chandeliers — they’re all part of daily life here, as familiar to the staff as the lake itself. Even the silk duvets, first designed by the Bucher family’s matriarch in 1873, are still handmade locally. The new hammam and private spa suite fit seamlessly into that story, not as a statement of modernity, but as a continuation of the same quiet craftsmanship that defines the house.
Plenty of hotels on Como trade on their heritage, but Villa Serbelloni doesn’t need to. It is the heritage – the oldest of its kind on these shores, still family-owned, still as full of life, charm and glamour as the day it opened.