The floating pool and the hydrangeas at Villa d’Este

Carolina of Brunswick, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom – a woman of unconventional spirit and a lover of beauty in every sense – would certainly have loved the floating swimming pool at Villa d’Este, the very residence that the sovereign, whilst on a romantic getaway in Italy, transformed into a sumptuous home. Opened exactly sixty years ago, just like the Sporting Club – the very first of its kind in Europe – it stands as a summer icon in the upper reaches of Lake Como thanks to its elongated shape, the way it sways with the currents, welcoming ducks and cormorants as the sun sets over the trompe l’oeil of the Queen’s Pavilion and the Grill restaurant – a favourite of George Clooney, who is often seen sitting outside amongst the centuries-old plane trees – even though his wife Amal has recently been steering him more often towards Provence, rather than to his Villa Oleandra in Laglio. The writer Edith Wharton was right to highlight this historic hotel’s affinity with the sensibility of the landscape: as one casually surrenders to the scents and colours in its park, one is overcome with rapture at the sensuality of the hydrangeas, the boldness of the macrocarpa cypresses, and one is left speechless in the presence of the scenes depicted in the circular mosaics that give way to the ascending perspective between two frames of pools towards the niche, where a statue of Hercules stands majestically. The journey of discovery continues: amongst the foliage and shadows of chestnut and holm oak trees, deep within the thicket of laurels, past the horse-chestnut trees and bamboo groves, one reaches the fortresses clinging to the cliff face. They are nothing more than curious panoramic structures, yet another perspective-based setting best appreciated perhaps from below. Breakfast beneath the horse-chestnut trees interspersed with lime trees, all pruned into umbrella shapes, offers another cathartic moment. In the Edificio del Cardinale, the sixteenth-century building, one breathes in a Napoleonic atmosphere in style, yet with a playful contemporary feel: the Canova-inspired statues, the nineteenth-century French paintings in the Hall of Columns—ideal for enjoying a cup of tea whilst seated on the red sofas— the frescoes on the vaults of the hall named after General Bonaparte, and the Spanish-style portraits and those of Roman emperors in the long corridors all give the impression that one is always on the verge of a party, or a romantic encounter capable of changing one’s life in the blink of an eye. After all, why couldn’t you happen to meet a Prince Charming through the revolving door, at the bridge table or at the table opposite in the La Veranda restaurant, or even behind the wheel of the vintage Alfa Romeo parked in the garden? You’ve just got to give it a go – perhaps even if it means losing a shoe on the carpets of the drawing rooms or on the gravel in the park.