"We arrived here and I was heartbroken,saying,'Oh,this is the last time I will see this place,I'm so sad,it was perfect'."
When the hammer fell in their favour,the family was elated. It took three years to navigate the heritage requirements,structural improvements and design work necessary for the transformation of Passalacqua from private residence to luxury hotel. Under the vigilant gaze of St Agata's bell tower and the trees that had stood sentry for centuries,the property transformed into a vibrant version of those sepia images of lore.
The villa was reconfigured to encompass 12 suites,each with a capacious marble bathroom;the old stables became the Palazz,accommodating eight suites and a spa;Casa Al Lago,secreted upon a lower terrace,became a four-room retreat. Green-thumbed Paolo and Antonella oversaw the garden's renewal and scoured antique auctions for furnishings. Valentina,whose second child was born shortly after the auction,recalls selecting fabrics from Italian textile houses Rubelli,Dedar and Fortuny while self-isolating during a bout of COVID.
"I collected samples of the kind of fabrics that I love,the richest and the more colourful,"she says."And during this week of isolation,I put together… every room. It was quite a big job,so at the end of this week,I was like a black belt of every kind of fabric!"
If the ghosts of St Agata and Bellini were haunting the process,their input was disregarded;it was important,Valentina says,to respect the property's history without embedding it in a particular era.
"[We were] trying to create something that could be timeless,because it's very easy that a hotel gets older if you make choices that are too much related to a specific time,either modern or antique … We had to respect the original aim and the history of the place,and just[articulate] it."
But the antiquated ritual of languid holidaymaking hasn't been tinkered with.
"I think one of the beauties of this place is that we really managed to bring back to life something that we think is lost in time,and that in Italian we call the'art of village',the villeggiatura,"Valentina says.
"Now,holiday means doing a lot of activities,visiting this,that.[But] at the end of the 18th century and afterwards,this villa was meant to host a different kind of holiday,the villeggiatura. People were moving here for weeks,months,and the aim of the holiday was just enjoying the time,the little things,the nature,the company,enjoying good food,good talk,a good book. And I think nowadays all these things are quite lost."
Lost,perhaps,but easily rediscovered here. Rising early,I throw open the shutters to a still,dewy day. Boats plough the mist-swaddled lake. Sunlight flares above the mountains and pours into the valley. The little church is swaddled in damp;how many sunrises have its frescoed eyes witnessed?
Downstairs,people are spilling like houseguests from bed to kitchen,chatting to the cook,unfurling newspapers in sunny nooks,reclining with books on outdoor loungers. I descend the terraces,weaving from the pool's glasshouse bar and cafe – florid with Milan-based JJ Martin's La DoubleJ homewares – to olive grove to kitchen garden aflutter with a flock of fussy chickens.
Last night I ate a veloute of beets harvested from this patch;it was topped with baked ricotta and pioppini mushrooms,and glowed lush as the greenery spilling towards the lake. Each terrace is its own private chamber:a bocce court here,a gym tucked against the stone wall there. Scalloped parasols and candy-striped awnings throw patches of shade and whimsy all the way down to the water.
At the pier I board a vintage motor launch. Its driver,Alessandra Villani,is deeply connected to these waters:she swam,sailed and fished here as a girl;today she's a mountain and boat guide for Passalacqua and the Grand Hotel Tremezzo. As she steers us offshore,Moltrasio shrinks against the limestone crags in a tumble of terracotta roofs and light-doused sycamores.
"In the past,almost all the villages along the lake you could find silk factories,"Villani says."They would sell silk to the aristocracy and the church."
Those villages unspool now in a collage of huddled villas and summer residences dangling above limpid water. There's the late Gianni Versace's home in Moltrasio,George Clooney's pad in Laglio,and the 19th century opera singer Giuditta Pasta's estate in Blevio. Did her voice ring out across the water as Bellini sat on the opposite shore composing his opus,Norma,for her?
Back onshore,I retrace the imagined footsteps of Agata and Bellini through the cobblestone streets of Moltrasio. In Roman times,flour mills were powered by the town's two waterfalls;one of them is now a gelato shop. High on the hill lie three small villages,says bar manager Alex Bargna as he serves me a pre-dinner Bellini at Passalacqua that evening. One soars hundreds of metres above sea level,the lake spread out like an ocean below,the hills opposite aflame in the twilight. It has no road access,no electricity.
Perhaps this is where Agata's spirit resides,amid familiar simplicity. That night,I peer at the little church from my window. It's silhouetted against the flushed sky,its belfry perforated with remnant sunlight. Bellini's dirge spirals in heartbreaking lamentations over my shoulder and into the dark. I close the shutters and thank the saints for my heavenly bed.
Catherine Marshall was a guest of Passalacqua and the Grand Hotel Tremezzo.
THE DETAILS
FLY
Qatar Airways flies daily from Sydney and Melbourne to Doha,with regular connections to Milan. Seeqatarairways.com. Lake Como is an hour's drive from Milan.
STAY
Passalacqua's season runs from early March to early January. Doubles from about $1250 a night. Seepassalacqua.it/en.
VISIT
Activities include open-air cinema screenings,tennis,spa treatments,cooking classes,boat trips and guided walks around Moltrasio.