Villa del Balbianello

Villa and gardens on the end of the small Dosso di Lavedo (Dosso d'Avedo) peninsula southeast of Lenno town. Its last private owner was Guido Monzino, a mountaineer and explorer, who filled the villa with his artefacts and memorabilia, and bequeathed it to the Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano (FAI), the national trust of Italy. You can take yourself around the gardens, and go through the villa on a one-hour guided tour, which is well worth it. There are tours in English as well as Italian – if you arrive just after an English tour has started, you might have to wait an hour or so for the next one. To get there, if arriving at Lenno on the ferry, turn left and walk 800 m around the bay to Lido di Lenno, where you can take a taxi boat (€7 return, €5 one way) around to the villa. On Tu, Sa, Su you have the option of walking either of two paths from the Lido over the wooded peninsula to the villa – the lush forest is a nice contrast to the manicured gardens of the villa. There is a 20 minute, 1 km walk with a couple of steep climbs or descents around the eastern edge of the peninsula, or a more strenuous 45 minute, 2 km trail over the top of the hill. If you'd like to take the boat one way and walk the other, some people recommend taking the boat to get there, because the villa looks impressive as you arrive by boat, and if you later depart from the top of the garden, you've already done some of the uphill walking.