Gardens of the Italian Lakes: Lakes Como & Maggiore featuring the Orticolario garden festival

5 days | £3890 per person with flights | 28 September - 2 October 2026

Lakes Como & Maggiore featuring the Orticolario garden festival

Our journey to the Italian Lakes will take us to some of the finest lakeside and island gardens of this uniquely beautiful region. We will travel mostly by boat, discovering landscapes of quiet enchantment and sublime grandeur. While our days will be infused with exquisite light, by night we will revel in the fin de siècle atmosphere of our lakeside hotels. The warm, humid microclimate results in exceptional growing conditions, with much to enthuse the plantsman. Combining great botanical interest with the fascinating history of the gardens’ origins, our tour will move from the Renaissance to the twentieth century through compelling and often neglected chapters of Italian garden history. The tour culminates with a visit to Orticolario, an unusual, small garden festival at Villa Erba on Lake Como. We are accommodated at two lovely lakeside hotels offering a perfect combination of elegance, tradition and charm: the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees on the shores of Lake Maggiore and The Palace Hotel at the water's edge in historic Como.

Day to day Itinerary

Day 1

Fly from London to Milan Linate Airport. Our first visit is to Rocca d’Angera for aperitifs and stunning views overlooking Lake Maggiore. We arrive at Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees with time to settle in before dining together.

Day 2

After breakfast we board a private boat and make the short crossing to the breath-taking island garden of Isola Bella with plenty of time to explore the terraces and admire the Baroque fountains, statues and water theatre, all set against the magnificent backdrop of Lake Maggiore and the distant mountains. After a delicious lunch on the tiny Isola dei Pescatori, we cross to Isola Madre to admire the Borromeo family’s wonderful 19^th century collection of exotic trees and plants. We return by boat to the hotel where we dine together.

Day 3

Leaving Lake Maggiore, we visit Villa Taranto and the extraordinarily rich range of plants collected in the 1930s by Neil McEacharn. We then take the ferry across the lake to Laveno and the short drive to Villa Cicogna, where our charming host Count Jacopo Mozzoni Cicogna has invited us to lunch. He then will guide us around the richly frescoed Renaissance villa, with 16^th century terraced garden, water staircase, and 19^th century giardino inglese. We arrive at The Palace Hotel in Como with time to settle in before dining together at a local restaurant with local wine included.

Day 4

We take a private boat from our hotel to enjoy the terraced botanical collection established by Charlotte, Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen, at Villa Carlotta, with time to visit the villa and its fine collection of paintings and sculpture. We then cross the lake to the picturesque town of Bellagio time for a group lunch at a local restaurant. From thence by water again to the exquisite Villa del Balbianello, a late 18^th century villa set in steeply sloping gardens at the tip of a wooded promontory. After a tour of the art collections assembled by its last owner, mountaineer and polar explorer Count Guido Monzino, we explore the spectacular garden. On the return journey to Como, we stop for afternoon tea at Villa D’Este followed by a short garden visit. Return to Como for a free evening.

Day 5

Our final morning of the tour will be spent at the Orticolario Garden Festival based at Villa Erba on the shores of Lake Como. Orticolario is a small, very Italian, quirky new garden festival set up and promoted by Moritz Mantero, a local silk manufacturer, who still gardens at his family home on the terraces of the lake. Return to Milan Linate airport in good time to check in for our return flight to London.

Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees

On the shores of Lake Maggiore stands the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees, an elegant Italian Hotel in a 'little corner of paradise', a short distance from Milan. Each room has been individually designed with sumptuous furnishings in shades of purple, gold and indigo, regal colours seen throughout the hotel. From the moment you step foot through the grand entrance, you are greeted with true Italian Hospitality. The hotel features several restaurants, each offering fine cuisine and luxury aperitifs, and two magnificent spas with a range of calming treatments available.

The Palace Hotel

Located in the historic centre of Como is The Palace Hotel, a perfect base for our exploration of Como and its gardening wonders. The 19th century Liberty-style building sits at the water's edge with views out onto the lake, offering 'the best of both worlds' with historic sites and shopping districts just a short walk away. Rooms are equipped with air conditioning and a range of complimentary amenities to enhance your stay.

With Flights: £3890

Join Direct: £3740

Single Supp: £695

Deposit: £450

Departure Dates:

28 September - 2 October 2026

Duration:

4 nights / 5 days

Your Holiday Includes:

Return flights (Economy class) from London to Milan
Two nights' bed and breakfast at the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees
Two nights' bed and breakfast at The Palace Hotel
Private coach transfers and excursions
Three evening meals and three lunches
Guided visits to sites listed in the programme
Services of the Tour Host and Tour Leader
Detailed programme and garden notes
All entrance fees, taxes, and gratuities for coach drivers and serving staff

Tour Host & Leader

Daniele Altieri

Daniele Altieri is an Italian-born garden designer and former scientist. After leaving his scientific career in Italy, he retrained in horticulture and worked as a gardener at Sutton Place and in National Trust gardens including Sissinghurst, The Courts and Smallhythe Place, where he was Head Gardener. Trained by John Brookes, the doyen of British garden design, he has designed gardens in Italy, Japan, and England. He is an experienced tour leader and lectures frequently on garden design, including training Sissinghurst gardeners. Daniele uses his designer’s eye to reveal how gardens create emotional responses, showing how spaces can delight, surprise or draw visitors into a deeper appreciation of the garden.

Marion Mako

Based in the Cotswolds, Marion is an accomplished freelance garden designer, historian, researcher, author, and tour leader. Inspired by a trip to Italy, she left the corporate world to study garden design and practical horticulture, later earning a Master’s in Garden History from the University of Bristol, where she focused on the Arts and Crafts era and the artist and garden designer Alfred Parsons. Marion has written five books, contributed to journals, and appeared on British TV and the American PBS series ‘A Short History of the English Garden’. For over twenty years, she has led garden tours across England and Europe. It is her great joy to discover and share new gardens with fellow garden enthusiasts and she is renowned for her engaging storytelling about the creators of these places.