Grand Hotel a Villa Feltrinelli

Villa Feltrinelli was built in 1892 as the summer seat of the Feltrinelli publishing and timber dynasty, a fantastical neo-Gothic confection of turrets and carved balconies on Lake Garda's quiet western shore at Gargnano. Its history is heavy—Mussolini resided here during the Salò Republic's final act—but its rebirth under hotelier Bob Burns in the late 1990s became a byword for restoration without compromise: original frescoes, marquetry and period furniture conserved piece by piece.

With about twenty rooms in the villa and its garden houses, and a staff outnumbering guests, the experience approaches that of a private house party in Belle Époque costume. Lawns run to the water's edge past magnolias and citrus, with a discreet pool hidden in the gardens and a wooden launch for lake outings.

The dining room holds a Michelin star for its precise, garden-fed Italian cooking, and dinner on the lakefront veranda counts among northern Italy's most romantic tables. Gargnano remains a working village blissfully short of resort gloss, and the hotel's seasonal opening keeps the spell intact. Garda has nothing else in this league, and arguably the lakes at large do not either.