The Durbin Family

The hotel has five restaurants – a lot for somewhere that has fewer than 90 rooms (recent refurbishments have made the rooms bigger, which means fewer actual rooms, but more luxurious ones). La Terrazza pays tribute to the late Gualtiero Marchesi, the pioneering Italian chef credited as being the father of modern Italian cuisine. Our dinner is a feast of lobster, veal with foie gras, seabass and the signature highlight, a risotto with sa ron and a large square of gold leaf. This comes with a certificate, because each dish is numbered – we’re 4,350 and 4,351. Travelling around is easy by ferry from just outside the hotel. Tremezzina is 15 minutes away from Belaggio, known as the Pearl of Lake Como – it’s one of the lake’s prettiest villages and famed for its colourful centre and sillk products, while the stylish town of Menaggio is 15 minutes’ drive to the north, and the city of Como, worth a visit for its impressively ornate cathedral, is 40 minutes away, on the way to Milan. Life doesn’t get much better than a weekend on Lake Como. grandhoteltremezzo.com

Rooms from £657 per night including breakfast + VAT. Grand Rooftop Suites start from £3,451 per night including breakfast + VAT.