The Villa del Balbianello is one of the top highlights of Lake Como, at least to me. This famous spot is home to an incredible villa and spectacular gardens, which is why it’s captured the eye of Hollywood movie makers.
Super crappy Star Wars movie dialogue!
“I don’t like sand…” OMFG, that is so ridiculously god awful!! Somebody actually wrote that line, and then somebody else said “yeah, that’s good”, and then the Director said, “cut, excellent…let’s move on to the Wookie sex scene”…and then the Editor, the last bastion of common decency, decided, “fuck it, let it ride”. A complete failure of movie making in one scene!
Bond movie we have yet to see.
Regardless of the Hollywood appeal, it’s a very cool spot to visit, and the villa has some amazing history. This is well worth the visit and the cost (I think it was 22 euros each). The place has a long history dating back to the late 1700’s, but the most recent restoration was by the Milanese businessman Guido Monzino, who turned it into his own private museum.
The first spot you stop is the Loggia, which offers the best views of the lake from both sides (until some trees grew too tall on the south side).
Here is the view to the north, which features the spot where the unforgiveably terrible lines were spoken in Star Wars. Padme talks about swimming to an island, which is just special effects, as seen by the below photo. The only island on the lake is in the opposite direction. Perhaps if she had drowned trying to find the island we wouldn’t have had to watch that scene?
Another view from the Loggia.
A closer view of the intracately trimmed bushes growing along the Loggia walls.
It has two enclosed structures which featured a music room (now the map room) and the library, still fully stocked with the last owners books.
Inside the villa are hundreds of artifacts from Monzino’s adventures. He went all over the world, visiting the North Pole twice, and attempted Everest, but a heart condition kept him at base camp. Below is an actual sled he used to reach the North Pole.
He built special display cases to show off his collection.
The display cases literally filled the entire house. Looks like he did a bit of Celestial Navigation as well.
This really intricate clock was used to time the bells in the church on the property. It was in a state of disrepair when the National Trust for Italy took over the property, so they had Rolex come in to fix it, which likely cost $3.5 trillion, which is basically zero accoriding to the Presidential math teacher!
After the villa tour you visit the lower gardens on your own. Kim was yelling something like “I don’t like sand…”. Something like that. I couldn’t make it out over the guy screaming at me to get off the grass in Italian. “Getta offa tha grassa”…yeah, that was it.
There were two groups here taking photos for their wedding. I tried to get into as many of them as possible…mostly to make the bride and groom look good, and trust me, one bride needed the help! Woof! There were also some Instagrammer douches…always fun to photobomb them! Still, this is a great spot for some awesome photos!
Guido Monzino’s last wish was to be buried on the estate. He died in 1988. I wish his last wish was to never let a Star Wars movie be filmed here! Here is his crypt.
One last look at the Loggia on the way out.
On the way back to Bellagio we got off the ferry a stop early so we could do some walking. We came across this statue outside a restaurant. One of the best statues we’ve seen on the trip!
We ran across this testament to John F. Kennedy, with no explanation for why it was here. Very strange. Maybe he visited Bellagio when he was President?
A beautiful shot of Bellagio.
One last sunset from the balcony.
We are off to Piemonte next!