Further Sport & Adventure Activities: Bike Rentals, Boat Mooring, Boat Rentals/Charters, Canoeing/Kayaking, Float Plane/Helicopter, Funicular Railway, Park, Public Transportation, Public Villas & Gardens and Rowing Boats.
Moltrasio is a very beautiful village with a lakefront centre with elegant villas and ancient passageways leading up the hillside to the slopes of Monte Bisbino above. The village enjoys a prominent past which still exists today with Villa Versace and being famous as the place where Winston Churchill spent the summer of 1945, after WWII.
There are many fine restaurants ideally situated within a 15 minutes drive away including Il Gatto Nero in Cernobbio, Crotte dei Platani in Brienno and La Piazetta in Argegno.
The cosmopolitan delights of Como city are also ideally situated just 20 minutes drive away, with train links to Milan and Malpensa Airport.
Moltrasio:
Moltrasio is a municipality in the Province of Como in the Italian region Lombardy. Moltrasio has always been very popular with celebrities and it was well known that Gianni Versace resided here as often as he could in his beloved Villa Le Fontanelle. George Clooney frequently stays at his holiday home in Villa Oleandra, Laglio, which is next to Moltrasio. It was also in Moltrasio that Sir Winston Churchill decided to relax after WWII in the summer of 1945.
The village weaves its way from the shore of the lake up to the slopes of Monte Bisbino. The grey coloured stone found here is well known throughout the area and was used by the Maestri Comacini for building. Many important finds were made during the construction of the lake road in 1910, some dating back to pre Roman times holding great historic importance. A plague struck the village in the sixteenth century and the population was totally decimated.
Moltrasio is a charming little village, well known for its waterfall , the water of which flows away under three Roman bridges. It has lake view restaurants where you can sample local and freshly prepared dishes and regional wine. There is a 'lido' which is a little sandy beach ( but you do have to pay an entrance fee). some shops, a bank, post office and a Church.
During your stay it is well worth visiting Villa Passalacqua (Palace of Moltrasio). It has many historical features and some of the cellars and walls were part of the Monastery of the Humiliated. The small Roman church of St. Agata stands next to the villa.
Lombardy - Lake Como Area:
The Italian Lakes are a little slice of paradise. Elegant ribbons of blue water stretch out ahead, folded into the sun-baked foothills, with a spectacular back drop of the snow-capped Alps.
Lake Como offers hidden treasures just waiting for the visitor to discover them: charming corners forgotten by time, lakeside villages where nothing seems to have changed for centuries.
It is steeped in history with an immense collection of churches, architectural masterpieces and works of art covering the centuries. The lake is situated in a basin surrounded by wooded mountains, and offers an extremely varied landscape, with its' shores featuring a succession of pastures, and woods as well as harsh and impressive rock formations.
All this alongside elegant, lakeside villas with sub-tropical gardens, which provide a haven of peace and tranquillity and chic resorts such as Varenna, Bellagio, Menaggio and Como itself.
Warming, in spriing and graced with natural beauty, the lakes are still a place to draw breath and wonder. Lake Como, oriented north-south, ringed by characterful old villages often wedged onto narrow beaches between rugged cliffs and water. Those classic lake images of flower strewn balconies, Baroque gardens and splendid waterside villas can be found here in abundance. Dotted around and between the lakes are some of Italy's finest art cities, such as Milan, Verona & Bergamo.
The most romantic and picturesque villages on the lake are Santa Maria Rezzonico, Varenna (15 min by ferry) & Bellagio (8 min by ferry), Lenno (visit Villa Balbianello, location for 007's Casino Royale as well as Villa Gaeta, right here in Menaggio) & Laglio (where George Clooney owns Villa Oleandra).
