"A stay here is all about cultured ease and the kind of sublime Italian landscapes associated with grand tour oil paintings, rather than the selfie-mad scene of Puglia or the Amalfi Coast. Mandarin Oriental Lago di Como, the Asia-based group’s first European country retreat, is a renovation of an 18th-century opera singer’s lakeside estate, with immaculately tended gardens and a pool that seems to float on the surface of the lake. But it puts a spin on the old-school formula with classy mod-Med restaurant L’Aria under the guidance of Southern Italian chef Vincenzo Guarino and interiors by American designer Eric Egan that preserve as much as possible of the theatrical neoclassical atmosphere, while giving it a subtle Far Eastern twist. The main building, Villa Roccabruna—which contains reception, CO.MO Bar & Bistrot, Sala Mandarin lounge, and a lovely little basement spa—is the hotel’s opulent core. It also houses 10 suites; the other 63 rooms are spread around eight additional buildings on the shore-hugging property. Much is brand new, yet the greatest compliment one can pay this hotel is to say that it feels like it’s always been here, down to barman Luca De Filippis’s French 75 variation, made with local gin and linden honey." - Nicholas DeRenzo, CNT Editors
