Wrapped in grey cashmere blankets and silk scarves as our 1960s wooden boat hurtles across the sparkling lake, the mid-morning sun breaks through the sluggish October clouds, turning the water a bright turquoise.
We wrinkle our noses as we glide past pristine lawns which lead to salmon-pink and apricot Renaissance villas and terracotta villages flanked by forested mountains.
I’m in Lake Como with my mother to explore this world-famous resort in the low season.
Visit in July and August and you’ll find huge crowds of tourists jostling through the main towns in sundresses, oversized sunglasses and straw hats.
But everything changes come October and November; a more authentic Como emerges as the leaves turn and the Lake takes a deep breath.
The locals call this newfound appreciation for Como in the shoulder seasons destagionalizzazione (seasonal adjustment) – a way of savouring Como’s quieter months, when there’s mist on the water, a perfect crispness to the air and free tables for Aperol spritz and bowls of salted crisps at restaurants.
Close to the border with Switzerland, Italy’s greatest lake is a place so effortlessly glamorous, so utterly soaked in beauty, that it continues to attract the rich and famous.
‘Como is used in so many film sets now that locals refer to it as “Comowood”,’ our captain, Paolo, says as he shuts down the engine of the Venice taxi-boat outside Richard Branson’s home and we drift along to a house used in the hit series Succession.
The Mail’s Head of Travel Harriet Sime visits Lake Como in the off-season with her mother
Harriet and her mother are staying at the Grand Hotel Tremezzo on the shores of Lake Como, surrounded by the Grigne mountains
Just this year, Anne Hathaway, Keira Knightley, Sir Rod Stewart and Emily Blunt have been spotted on the streets and boats of Como
Our base is Grand Hotel Tremezzo, which stands proudly on the shores of Lake Como where the Grigne mountains tumble into glittering waters.
Undoubtedly the most storied hotel in Lake Como, Tremezzo has been welcoming famous guests since 1910.
Just this year, Anne Hathaway, Keira Knightley, Sir Rod Stewart and Emily Blunt have been spotted on the streets and boats of Como.
As have Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, who are rumoured to have shortlisted Tremezzo as a potential wedding venue after staying nearby at Villa Sola Cabiati – which is managed by Tremezzo – last year. But the staff’s lips are sealed.
The hotel is one of only a few on Lake Como that remains family-run.
The De Santis family celebrated 50 years of ownership this year, with daughter Valentina De Santis now in charge and overseeing the opening of nearby Passalacqua in 2022, which won the accolade of the World’s Best Hotel the following year.
Tremezzo’s 80 bedrooms either look on to botanical gardens, which burst with olive, palm and banana trees, or on to the lake.
Our lake-view room is on the fifth floor, and comes with a huge bed with the silkiest sheets, two bathrooms, a living room and balcony with bubbling hot tub sunken into the floor.
Tremezzo’s 80 bedrooms either look on to botanical gardens, which burst with olive, palm and banana trees, or on to the lake
History seeps from every inch of the hotel, as though benign objects could tell a thousand stories.
But annual winter refurbishments mean the hotel manages to maintain old-school elegance that isn’t dated or stuffy.
The garden pool, with its burnt orange and white parasols, looks like it’s come straight from the trendiest hotel opening.
The pops of primary-school coloured red, green, yellow and blue cushions add an element of interest in the lakefront fine-dining restaurant.
It’s all super lavish, but also fun and somehow devoid of the pretension so often served up at the world’s top hotel’s today.
We spend our days here switching between the three pools, including the WOW (Water-on-Water) pool which floats over the lake and has its own mini ‘beach’ with imported sand.
Guests are made up of smartly dressed couples and families, of which an incredible 80 per cent come from America.
‘It’s the George Clooney effect,’ a waiter in a bow-tie tells me at breakfast as I tuck into croissants and pistachio cannoli.
‘We spend our days here switching between the three pools, including the WOW (Water-on-Water) pool which floats over the lake and has its own mini ‘beach’ with imported sand,’ says Harriet
On our final afternoon, we board a ten-minute public ferry and perch on the outdoor deck next to locals with fluffy dogs in handbags as the boat chugs its way across the water to the town of Bellagio.
Only a handful of other boats drift by us enroute as the sun warms my back and I picture the hordes of ferries crammed with selfie sticks in the summer months.
We feel as though we’ve joined la passeggiata – the traditional late-afternoon walk – as we stroll Bellagio’s cobbled streets under a cloudless sky while tucking into pistachio ice cream, which drips down our fingers and on to our wrists.
My mother spends an hour dipping in and out of the boutique shops on the hunt for a silk scarf (Como is known for its silk).
She eventually settles on two neckties which we chuck in our bags before running to board the last ferry back to Tremezzo.
The next morning we pack our bags, ready for 24 hours in Milan. We’re staying at the ridiculously chic Mandarin Oriental Milan, which proves to be the perfect base for a whirlwind tour of the city and its shops.
We board our flight the next evening and have to sneak past the easyJet cabin crew with our bags, now bulging with new clothes.
But my mother’s favourite item? The orange silk scarf which she’s worn around her neck ever since that afternoon in Bellagio. A delightful reminder of the most memorable long weekend on the Lake.
