Filming locations in Lake Como

Lake Como has long been Italian cinema's byword for old-world glamour, and one property captures it above all the others: Villa del Balbianello, whose theatrical terraced gardens tumble down a wooded promontory near Lenno. In Casino Royale it is where a battered, recovering Bond convalesces after his ordeal, the lake mirror-still below, and the same gardens stood in for the secret lakeside wedding in another well-loved saga.

The villa belongs to the FAI, Italy's national trust, and opens on set days with a ticket, so it pays to check the calendar before you plan a visit. Note too that the gardens and the villa interior are usually ticketed separately, so decide in advance how deep you want to go.

Reaching it is half the romance. The most atmospheric approach is by a short boat ride across from the village of Lenno, drifting up to the promontory the way Bond's launch does in the film, though a lakeside footpath also leads to the gates for those who would rather walk. Either way, arrive with the water and the mountains framing the gardens just as the camera did.

Lenno or nearby Bellagio make comfortable bases on the lake's central arms, and Como itself is the gateway from Milan, less than an hour by train. The whole point of Como is the unhurried rhythm of its ferries, which lace the villa-dotted shores together and turn getting around into a pleasure rather than a chore.

Give Como more than a single villa visit if you can. The lake's ferry network opens up gardens, waterfront villages and grand hotels at every stop, all under the same alpine backdrop that has drawn film crews, spies and Jedi alike, and that still looks every inch the glamour the screen promised.