Varenna

Villa Cipressi Gardens

The garden of a Varenna hotel, open to the public: terraces among cypresses stepping down to the lake.

Today
Visit duration: 30 min – 1 h
Booking: Not required
Area: Centro Lago

Dario Crespi · CC BY-SA 4.0

Angelo Corana · CC BY-SA 4.0
A Corana · CC BY-SA 4.0
Mauro Cassina · CC BY-SA 3.0

Why go

Villa Cipressi, on the shore at Varenna, is a group of buildings and gardens reworked between the fifteenth and the nineteenth century.

The first core of the villa was built in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries for the Marquis Serponti, secretary of the Milan mint. In the first years of the nineteenth century it passed to Count Carlo Innocenzo Isimbardi, director of the mint of the Cisalpine Republic. Between 1824 and 1864 it was a hotel run by the Venini family. In 1864 the Andreossi family bought it, rebuilt it and gave the lake front its neoclassical look. In 1980 a subscription among the people of Varenna brought it into public ownership. The villa is a hotel; the garden, open to the public, steps down in terraces between rows of cypresses to the lake, once the main way into the villa.

It takes half an hour, next door to Villa Monastero.
The terraces step down towards the water at Varenna.

Highlights

The terraces dropping sheer to the lake
The veteran cypresses and magnolias

Getting there

Next door to Villa Monastero, on the same lakeside walk.

Villa Cipressi seen from the lake: the yellow neoclassical front above the terraced garden, between cypresses, with the arched wall on the water below.

Accessibility

The garden is only partly accessible to disabled visitors: it steps down to the lake in flights of stairs and terraces.

Visiting

Opening

What else is open now

In 2026, April to September 9:30 to 19:30, October 10:00 to 18:00, with the garden closed from 21 to 26 October; from 1 November to 10 January 2027 the Christmas Garden, 10:00 to 22:00, last entry 21:00

The Christmas Garden has a ticket of its own. The garden closes in late October to set up for Christmas.

Tickets

Paid admission, the Christmas Garden included.

Read on

Reduced from 4 to 15, over 65, for groups of at least 20 and for members of the Touring Club Italiano, FAI and ICOM; free up to 3 and for Varenna residents

Paid admission, the Christmas Garden included; reduced from 4 to 15, over 65, for groups of at least 20 and for members of the Touring Club Italiano, FAI and ICOM; free up to 3 and for Varenna residents

There is also a joint ticket with Villa Monastero, on sale on the days its garden is open.

The next boats from Varenna

Directions On the map Official source

DestinationsVarennaOchre houses on the water, two botanical gardens on the shore and Vezio castle above the village.