Villa Pliniana, Lake Como: the spring villa of Torno seen by boat
A 16th century villa built over a spring that rises and falls on its own. From the road you barely notice it. From the water it's a different story.
Villa Pliniana is one of those places on Lake Como that only really make sense from the water. It sits in a small bay near Torno, boxed in by woods and rock, with a waterfall behind it and a façade that drops straight into the lake. It's a private estate, now a luxury villa rented out on an exclusive basis, so you can't go inside. But glide past it by boat and you see it exactly as the Grand Tour travellers did.
Villa Pliniana from the lake: what you see arriving by boat
You come up from Torno, hugging the shore northwards. The houses stop, the coast gets steeper, and then a small bay opens up, dark with trees. At the back of it, there she is: a square palazzo, four rows of windows, a loggia right in the middle.
The first thing that reaches you is the sound. Before you can even focus on the villa, you hear the waterfall coming down the mountain behind it. Then, as we ease in closer, you pick out the square openings just above the waterline and the arch where the spring water pours out into the lake.
There's no getting off here: the jetty is private and reserved for guests of the villa. In our Venetian water taxi we slow right down in front of the bay and stay as long as it takes to look at it properly.
History of Villa Pliniana and its intermittent spring
The name comes from Pliny. In the 1st century AD Pliny the Younger wrote to his friend Licinius Sura about a spring that rose and fell three times a day, and tried to explain it with an underground wind or some kind of tide. Centuries later Leonardo da Vinci came to see it and wrote about it in his notebooks.
The villa itself dates from 1573, when Count Giovanni Anguissola, governor of Como, bought the land around the spring and started building. Then came the Visconti Borromeo, the Canarisi and the Belgiojoso families. Shelley, Byron, Stendhal and Foscolo all passed through, and tradition has it that Rossini composed Tancredi here. Fogazzaro set his novel Malombra in the villa, and in 1942 Mario Soldati shot the film version on location.
In the 20th century the villa grew isolated and stood empty for years. Restoration was completed in 2015, and today Sereno Hotels runs it as a private residence for stays and events.
What to see at Villa Pliniana from the boat
- 01The lakeside façade
Four tiers of windows, with broken pediments on the main floor. From the water it seems to grow out of the rock: the foundations sit directly on the stone.
- 02The loggia
Three arches on paired columns at the centre of the main floor. Inside, a stone tablet carries the Latin text of Pliny's letter about the spring.
- 03Where the spring meets the lake
Just above the waterline runs a corridor of square, unglazed openings. Below it, an arch lets the spring water out into the lake: the same water Pliny was writing about.
- 04The waterfall
It tumbles down the mountain behind the villa. In 1818 Shelley described it as a cascade that seems to fall from the clouds, broken by the rocks into a thousand streams.
- 05The woods around the bay
Chestnuts and centuries-old trees close in the inlet and keep it in shade. In spring, rhododendrons flower among the green.
When to visit Villa Pliniana
My favourite months are spring and early autumn. In April and May the woods are full of colour, and after a few days of rain you can hear the waterfall from a long way off. In September and October there's less boat traffic and the light is softer.
The lakeside façade faces west, so it catches the light in the afternoon and stays shaded in the morning. For stays and events at the villa, dates and conditions are on the official Villa Pliniana website: always check before you travel.
Places near Villa Pliniana
A few minutes away by boat is the village of Torno. Heading north you reach Nesso and its gorge. Across the Como branch are Cernobbio and Villa d'Este, and further up, in the central lake, Bellagio. On the Full Day Dolce Far Niente you can string them all together in one day.
Full Day Dolce Far Niente
We include Villa Pliniana in the Full Day Dolce Far Niente, a whole day on Lake Como aboard our Venetian water taxi. If you'd like to see it from the water without rushing, let's head out together.