Grand Hotel Tremezzo

Arrive at dusk, and by boat if you can. The dock is marked by two striped orange and white posts, each topped with a lamp, a welcome worthy of a very elegant lighthouse keeper. Behind them the hotel lights up: seven storeys of warm yellow, symmetrical to the point of stubbornness, with PALACE lettered across the pediments. In front of it, a swimming pool floats on the lake. It is called WOW, short for Water On the Water, and nobody involved seems to blush.

Enea Gandola, from Bellagio just across the water, and his wife Maria opened the hotel on 10 July 1910, in what was still a fishing village. Maria is said to have insisted on electric lifts, central heating and a bathroom for every guest, which was asking a great deal of a lake at the time. The De Santis family, in charge since 1975, has kept the habit of staying a step ahead.

Inside, the grandeur is the old fashioned kind, with the lights kept low. A stairwell drops through the hotel in square flights of red carpet and ironwork, and the bar has an inlaid counter and a parquet floor of tumbling cubes. The lake rooms have olive green walls, gilt frames and tall French windows facing Bellagio. Know this is a Grand Hotel and not a hideaway and half the rooms face the park, which is pleasant enough, but we would book the lake side without hesitation. A lake view deluxe room is the sensible choice, and the rooftop suites add a private terrace and a Jacuzzi.

The table deserves as much attention as the bed. La Terrazza carries a menu signed by Gualtiero Marchesi, the first Italian chef to win three Michelin stars. Giacomo al Lago sits beside the floating pool, a wood fired pizzeria is tucked into the park, and a vaulted cellar looks after the wine. Breakfast comes with an invitation to walk into the kitchen and order straight from the chefs.

After breakfast, stroll next door to Villa Carlotta, on whose former garden the hotel now stands. It has a botanical garden and sculptures by Canova and Thorvaldsen, and it rewards a slow morning, ideally before the day trippers arrive. Nobody expects you anywhere until lunch.