There’s something deliciously indulgent about a fall and winter break on Lake Como. It reminds one of life’s priorities: love and beauty, long walks in the chestnut woods, a slice of bread still warm from the oven, drizzled with new-pressed olive oil. French writer Albert Camus saw autumn as a second spring, “when every leaf is a flower”. At Passalacqua, we embrace that thought. There is a dolce energia in the year’s turn towards rest and repose, a joyful promise in autumn’s fruits, a warm embrace in the al fresco lakeside lunches one often enjoys here as late as December.
Every day is a gift
We harvest the season’s power to invigorate through morning yoga classes and acquagym session in our ravishing new indoor pool. We share its culinary delights via cooking classes with our chef di casa, Viviana Varese, that center on some of Italy’s seasonal specialities – like the gingerbread we call pan di zenzero. Creativity, nature and conviviality come together in activities with our resident ‘flower lady’, Daniela, that introduce guests to the art of floral table settings and the making of festive season garlands.
Pamper and unwind
In fall and winter, it’s only natural to need some pampering. Passalacqua’s Spa is an enchanted kingdom, where cares are checked out at the door and renewal comes to greet you. Floating in our heated indoor pool, you are suspended between mountain grotto and lakeside idyll. The ancient subterranean passageway that connects villa and lake has inspired our new Beautiful Balance Ritual, a cycle of hot and cold treatments – featuring products by organic Tuscan skincare line Seed to Skin – that are designed to stimulate cardiovascular health and reinforce the immune system.
The best seasonal fare
To dine at Passalacqua is to be part of a unique adventure – talented chef Viviana Varese’s reinvention of the great tradition of refined Italian home cooking as practised in Como’s aristocratic lakeside villas. Nowhere is Viviana’s embrace of this challenge more intensely and joyously felt than in the social dinners we offer in the convivial setting of the wine cellar each Thursday evening in November and December, or in her fall and winter seasonal menu, served in our warmly elegant restaurant, where the prized white truffle of Alba takes center stage.
Festive days
What better place than Passalacqua to bring family and friends for a festive break – or, dare we suggest, to escape from them? Whatever your reason, Passalacqua brings the fall and winter holiday season alive with sumptuous decorations, beguiling table settings, festive activities and tempting festive menus created by Viviana Varese. Join us for Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve dinner, lunch on Christmas Day, or a traditional Italian cenone dinner as we count down to midnight on New Year’s Eve.
