In the penultimate part of our series of articles about car rental holidays in Italy’s Lake Como area, we will be taking a look at the route from Tremezzo to Cernobbio.
Once you’ve explored Tremezzo, head south on the SS340 in your hire car. This route will take you through a number of towns and villages, including Lenno, Ossuccio, Colonno, Argegno, Brienno, Torrigio, Laglio, Carate Urio and Moltrasio.
It’s worth stopping off and visiting the beautiful Villa del Balbianello, which sits on a promontory on the lake, just outside of Lenno. If you park your rental car in Lenno, you can either walk to Villa del Balbianello, which is about 1km away, or take a boat there.
Villa del Balbianello was constructed during the 18th century for Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini and later became the home of the explorer and mountaineer, Count Guido Monzino. Monzino was born in 1928 and made more than 20 expeditions to places such as Greenland, Pakistan and Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro before he died in 1988. He also led Italy’s first expedition to climb Mount Everest.
You can see some of the maps that Monzini used on his expeditions in Villa del Balbianello’s Map Room, and the library there contains more than 4,000 books which he used for research. You can also learn more about Monzini and his travels in the Museum of Expeditions, which is on the villa’s upper floor. Here you can see documents, photos and even one of the dog sleds that Monzini used during his North Pole expedition. The interior of the villa is only accessible if you go on a guided tour -see the Villa del Balbianello website for further details.
You can also explore the Villa del Balbianello’s terraced garden, which includes a “loggia”, and enjoy the beautiful views across Lake Como. Villa del Balbianello has been used as a location in a number of movies, including Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) and Casino Royale (2006).
On route to Cernobbio from Tremezzo, you’ll also pass through Laglio, which is now world famous for being the location of George Clooney’s Villa Oleandra.
It will take you about half an hour to drive to Cernobbio from Tremezzo in your hire car if you don’t stop en route, but part of the joy of touring Lake Como is being able to do so at a leisurely pace and enjoy all that it has to offer.
In the final part of our series about car hire holidays in the Lake Como area, we will explore Cernobbio’s attractions and take a look at the route back to Milan via Como.
Tags: car hire, car hire holidays, car rental, Cernobbio, George Clooney, Italy, Laglio, Lake Como, Lenno, Tremezzo, Villa del Balbianello, Villa Oleandra
[...] lap of luxury? And this time will they do it in Italian style? It’s been rumored that David BeckhamA Tour of Italy’s Lake Como Region – Tremezzo to Cernobbio …In the penultimate part of our series of articles about car rental holidays in Italy’s Lake Como [...]