Passalacqua
Moltrasio, Italy · 5-star Hotel
Passalacqua in photographs
When to go
We do not yet have enough months on record to call a cheapest season for this one. It is on the tracker and this page updates as that fills in.
Where to book
- Book on Booking.com - Free cancellation options, guest reviews and a familiar checkout.
- Book direct with the hotel - Usually the best price, and the only route where a loyalty discount applies.
- Hotel website - Photos, facilities and location.
Our notes
Passalacqua
Passalacqua is a restored eighteenth-century villa turned luxury hotel in Moltrasio, on the western shore of Lake Como. According to the hotel, the villa was designed and built at the end of the 18th century by the Milanese architect Carlo Felice Soave for Count Andrea Lucini-Passalacqua, as an enlargement of a property once owned by Pope Innocent XI, and it opened its doors as a hotel in June 2022. The estate has three places to stay, each with its own character: the Villa, the heart of the hotel with formal gardens and lake views, the Palazz, a more romantic house tucked behind the Villa, and the Casa al Lago in the estate grounds. Every suite is different.
The gardens fall in terraces to the lake and include a kitchen garden, and the swimming pool sits on a garden terrace just below the main villa, with a former greenhouse beside it that is now the Winter Garden. The spa uses the Tuscan organic skincare line Seed to Skin and has a surprising underground part. The hotel has a bar and a dining offer, and the interiors keep frescoed ceilings, gilt mirrors and a grand staircase.
Our review record: Google 4.9 from about 890 reviews (a figure taken from a web-search summary on 24 September 2026, not from the Google page itself). Photographs: the hotel's own website, passalacqua.it.
The area
The lake works best from April to October, and it is busiest where the famous names are. Bellagio and Varenna fill up by mid-morning in summer. The western shore is the better base: take the ferry to Brienno and Laglio, or walk the Greenway path through Lenno, and you get the same water and mountains with a fraction of the crowd.
Como itself deserves more than a change of ferry. Caesar founded it as a Roman settlement, the twelfth-century Porta Vittoria tower still stands, and the covered market has run since 1934. The villa gardens along the shore were built as botanical showpieces by the families who made their money in silk, and several are open to visitors.
Eat where the locals go: an old stone house above Tremezzo for mountain cooking, or a crotto on the eastern shore that has served lake fish since 1832.
Background: The New York Times, 36 Hours on Lake Como, Laura Rysman, September 2026.
In the blog
Lake Como without the Lake Como price
The famous names on this lake now start around USD 1,800 a night, and a new wave of luxury openings is pushing that higher. Five minutes from the station, the same water and the same light go for under USD 241 - and the quiet western shore is a ferry ride away.
2026-09-24 · Como, Italy
What it costs through the year
| Cheapest we have seen | USD 2,597 ≈ €2,321 |
|---|---|
| What it usually costs | USD 2,597 ≈ €2,321 |
| Dearest we have seen | USD 2,597 ≈ €2,321 |
| Times we looked | 1 |
| Gap between the two | - |
| Last checked | 2026-10-24 |