Villa Balbianello

Along our Greenway walk, we stopped at a villa on a peninsula that just happened to only be open Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. That day was Tuesday, so we were in luck.

It's called Villa Balbianello and it was built in the 1700s for a cardinal as a place of relaxation and meditation. I think even today it still is. It passed from family to family until the 1940s when unfortunately the Fascists confiscated it during the war and when the family returned, everything in the buildings was gone. They sold it to a rich Italian count and he restored it to what it looks like today. He never married and left the property to the government. Now there are tours of the grounds and the house.

The foundation also rents the grounds to movie producers. Do you recognize the photo below from Casino Royale? It's where James Bond recovers almost at the end of the movie. I don't think they ever said it was Lake Como, but I remember the scene.






The last owner refurbished the church on the property to a modern kitchen and huge dining room above. You would never guess it used to be a church from the inside, but he left it the same on the outside.