Tremezzina

Villa del Balbianello

An eighteenth-century FAI villa on the tip of the Lavedo headland at Lenno, with the Durini loggia above the lake and a terraced garden.

Book on the official site

Today
Visit duration: 1 h 30 – 2 h 30
Booking: Required
Area: Centro Lago
Status: A FAI property

Navin75 · CC BY-SA 2.0

Scott Thompson · CC BY 2.0
Jeroen Komen · CC BY-SA 2.0

Why go

Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini had the villa built in 1787 on the site of a Franciscan friary.

It was the last home of the explorer Guido Monzino, who in 1988 left it to the FAI, the Italian National Trust, with his collection of non-European art and the relics of his Everest and North Pole expeditions, which now make up the museum included in the visit. On the headland, the Durini loggia is open on three sides above the water. The garden steps down in terraces that follow the rock, with staircases and plane trees pruned into candelabra.

A creeping fig covers the arches of the Durini loggia, and a compass rose is inlaid in its floor.
The villa's rooms hold eighteenth-century French furniture, Beauvais tapestries and paintings on glass.
Under the roof, the expedition museum shows the sledge of the 1971 North Pole expedition and a collection of Inuit ivories.

Getting there

On foot from the Lido di Lenno along the peninsula path: a kilometre uphill, partly on gravel, about 25 minutes.
By taxi boat from the Lido di Lenno, 5 minutes.

The lawn running down to the lake below the loggia, with its pollarded plane trees, the gravel path and a few visitors.

Accessibility

The villa and park are partly accessible to people with reduced mobility or using a wheelchair; the villa's staff should be told before the visit.
The footpath from Lenno, a kilometre uphill and partly on gravel, is not suitable for people who have difficulty walking: with notice you can drive up to the ticket office at the park's road entrance, or come by taxi boat from the Lido di Lenno.
All the paths in the park slope and are partly gravel. There is one step into the villa; inside, a lift that takes a wheelchair serves three of the six floors. The Durini Loggia is reached by a flight of stairs; the Segrè Loggia has no steps.
There are accessible toilets in the Segrè Loggia and beside the landing stage, seats in the park and folding chairs in the villa's main rooms.

Visiting

Opening

What else is open now

From 14 March to the end of October every day except Monday and Wednesday, 10:00 to 18:00; in November on the same days, 10:00 to 17:00; in December on Tuesdays and Friday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:00 (not the 25th); in January 2027 on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th, 10:00 to 17:00

Booking required, on the villa's site. Last entry to the park is an hour before closing, the last guided tour of the villa two hours before.

Tickets

Paid admission, for the park only or for villa and park with the guided tour.

Read on

Reduced from 6 to 18 and for students up to 25, family ticket; free up to 5, for disabled visitors and one companion, for FAI members and for residents of Tremezzina

Paid admission, for the park only or for villa and park with the guided tour; reduced from 6 to 18 and for students up to 25, family ticket; free up to 5, for disabled visitors and one companion, for FAI members and for residents of Tremezzina

The next boats from Lenno

Directions On the map FAI — Italian National Trust

DestinationsTremezzinaFour villages in a row on the lake's western shore, facing Bellagio.

Practical information

Address: Via Guido Monzino 1, 22016 Tremezzina
Telephone: +39 0344 56110
Dogs: Allowed in the garden, always on a lead; inside the buildings only guide dogs and certified assistance dogs

Facilities

Public toilets 39 m away · accessible

Distances from the point on the map.

The light

The lakeside façade faces east: the good light is the morning, until eleven. In the afternoon it is backlit, which is another photograph, with silver water.

Faces: east
Best light: morning
Full moon: Tue 24 Nov · 16:51 · north-east

JuneDecember

The skyline measured every two degrees out to twenty-two kilometres, and to two hundred where the near mountains let the Alps show. The solid line is the sun's arc at the summer solstice, which leaves the top of the frame; the dashed one is the winter solstice, with the hour it comes out from behind the mountain and the hour it goes back.

See from here where the sun comes from, in 3D

All the photo spots

Updated 21 October 2026

The mountains from here

The highest summit in view from here is Monte Gruf, 2938 m, 43 kilometres away.

Open the panorama with the summits by name

The ochre line follows today's sun path and marks the estimated times of its first and last appearance above the mountains. Drag the panorama to see all of it.

How it is drawn

Paler ridges are farther away; heights are stretched two and a half times. Houses are not drawn, nor are trees within half a kilometre. Terrain © Regione Lombardia (CC BY 4.0); summits © OpenStreetMap contributors.