Featured holiday Italian Lakes garden holiday for individuals Italy

We recommend taking a morning flight from London to Milan where you collect your hire-car for the drive of about 90 minutes to the hotel for the first three nights, the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni on the banks of Lake Como in the picturesque village of Bellagio. Depending on the time of arrival you may want to visit your first suggested garden this afternoon: Villa Melzi d’Eril in Bellagio and a walk of about 20 minutes along the shore of Lake Como from the hotel. The gardens at the Villa Melzi d’Eril are English-style gardens dating from the early 1800s and famous for its camellias, of which there are over 250 and one, a camellia japonica Atrorubens, which dates from about 1818. However, do not overlook the gardens of where you are staying. The promontory of Serbelloni was possibly the site of Pliny the Younger’s villa ‘Tragedia’ and from its highest point, there are breathtaking views of the lake and its surrounding mountains. The original villa was built after 1539 and its gardens planted with orange and lemon, fig, olives and laurels. Duke Alessandro Serbelloni took possession of the property in 1788 and created the Italian-style terraces which exist still today. Statues, busts, grottoes and other archaeological curiosities are to be discovered throughout the gardens. The woods that cover the hillside above the villa are full of hornbeam, hazel and holly.

Our suggestions for today with the services of a local guide for half a day are two villas that sit on the opposite side of the lake to Bellagio. You can take your car on the ferry to the other side of the lake or you can travel as foot passengers and use public transport (taxis or buses) to reach the two gardens. Your guide meets you at the first garden. Villa Balbianello is in a secluded and enchanting setting on a promontory and dates from 1787. Steps lead from a landing stage on the lake into a terraced garden with a charming ‘casino’ and loggia, trellised with Ficus pumila. The grounds are full of pine, cypress and oak as well as flowerbeds. Villa Carlotta at Tremezzo has gardens of about eight hectares and combines the style of a formal 18th Century layout and a more English-style woodland, a little further from the villa. There is the 17th Century Italian garden with its geometric schema, staircase, terraces, statues and fountains and yet the park has trees dating from the second half of the 19th Century such as cedars, planes and sequoias, as well as azaleas and rhododendrons, of which there are over 150 different sorts. Additional features include a bamboo garden and a rock garden.

Take the ferry from Bellagio to the eastern shore of Lake Como and the village of Varenna. Here you can visit the gardens of Villa Monastero, renowned for a fine collection of Mediterranean and tropical vegetation, much of it introduced in the last 19th and early 20th Centuries, such as the palms and agaves, as well as fountains and statues. Plants at Villa Monastero include eucalyptus, tangerines, grapefruits, camphor and Magnolia grandiflora. Continue to Villa Cipressi, poised upon a rocky promontory and with terraces leading down to the lake, planted with Mediterranean shrubs and vines, laced with magnolia, eucalyptus, pittosporum, lavender and agave. Return to Bellagio for the rest of the day.

Today leave your hotel on Lake Como for the drive to Lake Maggiore where you spend the next three nights. The route can be to the south to skirt to the north of Milan, or you make for Como and then take the route north into Switzerland to hug the northern end of Lake Maggiore and pass through the towns of Locarno and Ascona. Settle in to your hotel. Dinner is included here every evening.

Today is spent on the islands in Lake Maggiore, accompanied by your local guide. You can depart from the hotel by private boat or by boat from Pallanza. There are also boats from Stresa but then it’s easiest to visit Isola Bella first. Isola Madre is a special botanical garden that started life as an orchard, (in 1542 550 vines, walnuts, figs, chestnuts, olive and quince were counted), then an olive grove and then a citrus grove. Today amid its terraces and parterres you find an array of semi-tropical flowers, shrubs and trees, including magnolia and bamboo, wisteria and citrus in espaliers, lilies and lotus flowers. You continue by boat to Isola Bella to visit the museum and gardens. Isola Bella is one of the most dramatic 17th Century Baroque gardens in Italy, seemingly floating on the surface of the lake with its ten-terraced garden with parterres at different heights, hanging gardens, and the terraces sprinkled with obelisks, stone stairs, statues and marble ballustrades. You reach the gardens through six subterranean grottoes, embellished with tinted stucco, shellwork and pebble mosaics. From the cool of the grottoes, you enter the Courtyard of Diana to ascend to the central axis of the garden. From here there is the Theatre of Hercules and above are the original grass parterres but now with exotic evergreens and shrubs. In the centre is the Water Theatre and its unicorn statue, a symbol of the Borromean family who still own the island. Jocularity and fantasy combine in the water jokes, putti and scallop shell fountains. Espaliered fruit, box, roses and lemon trees soften the stonework. Walls are covered with creeping fig and an old specimen cork oak grows almost on the lake shore. You return to your hotel for dinner.

Today we suggest you drive to Pallanza and visit the magnificent gardens of Villa Taranto. The gardens of the Villa Taranto were established between 1931 and 1940 by Scotsman Neil McEacharn who bought an existing villa and its neighbouring estates, cut down more than 2000 trees, and undertook substantial changes to the landscape, including the addition of major water features employing 8 km of pipes. The gardens opened to the public in 1952 and today the gardens contain nearly 20,000 plant varieties, representing more than 3,000 species and several rare species, set among 7 km of paths. Among its collections are azalea, cornus, greenhouses of Victoria amazonica, and 300 types of dahlias. The dahlia maze is a delight from summer to autumn. Waterlilies are in flower from mid-June until the end of October and can reach a diameter of almost two metres. There are avenues of maple, azalea, rhododendron and camellia. In spring, the flower beds burst with tulips and spring blooms. It also contains a small herbarium and the founder's mausoleum. Continue to Stresa and stroll the lakeside promenades with views of the Borromean islands. Above the lake near Stresa is the park of the Villa Pallavicino with its 16 hectares of lawns, shady avenues and beds. Roses, oleanders, magnolias, azaleas and rhododendron can be found alongside horse chestnuts, Lebanese cedars and beech. Return to Cannero Riviera for dinner and your last night.

There is a wide choice of flights each day from Milan Malpensa to London, so you may have most of the day at leisure on Lake Maggiore before returning your hire-car at the airport.