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Honeymoon
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Italy’s Romantic Bellagio...
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Surrounding Lake Como: 1000-year-old churches. At the Grand Hotel Villa Serboloni: Poolside, and the elaborate gardens. (photos & article: Rick Bard)
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"One, high up on the rocks, looks out over the lake. The other stands on the lake shore ... Each has its attractions ... This one embraces a single bay with a gentle curve, that one stands on a prominent outcrop dividing two bays."
The poetic inspiration of Lake Como has worked its wonders on visitors since pre-Roman days, but it wasn’t until the 1700’s, when various lakeside properties were left to Duke Alessandro Serbelloni that these villas gained their present name.
Today, the hotel — which officially opened for guests in 1873 — is presided over by owner Gianfranco Bucher, whose father and grandfather owned and managed the property before him.
Intimate Moments
Your first night you have a light dinner, wonderfully homemade pasta in a fresh tomato basil sauce. It’s like nothing you’ve ever tasted, even in Manhattan. Maybe the flavors are enhanced by the surroundings. And who wouldn’t be entranced? Gaze out the windows overlooking the lake. The blinking lights from the homes on the opposite shore slowly hypnotize, the Alps sitting majestically behind them, covered by the night sky.
After dinner you enter the main sitting room and happen upon an instrumental trio. The violinist is a virtuoso. His fingers dance up and down the strings with a skill found only on the world’s great stages. But tonight he and his fellow musicians are playing for just you and perhaps 15 other couples, old and young, lovers all, sitting amid the antique furniture in this glamorous oversized room, its 25-foot ceiling rich with detailed Renaissance images.
They play Mozart, Broadway tunes and early Beatles hits, exhibiting a deep love for their music. That same passion infuses the hotel’s entire staff.
The peacefulness on your loved one’s face, the light touch of each others’ fingers, all speak of romance and a future warm and bright, as joyful as the music.
Soon you both depart, climbing the hotel’s glorious marble staircase hand in hand to reach your honeymoon suite.
An Italian Wedding
Invigorated by the mountain fresh air, you are drawn to the town once again. The warmth of the small family- owned stores envelopes you and your husband, and you find yourselves deep in conversation with various third and fourth generation shop owners, talking about fabric, leather and Italian hand-made craftsmanship.
One store, "Ad Hoc," offers fine silks and leather goods, and your husband purchases several contemporary leather bags, two for you, several more for friends and business partners.
Delighted to discover you are on your honeymoon, Michele Gilardoni, the shop owner—it’s a family business and he’s now taking over from his parents — tells you he and his girlfriend Paola (she works there, too) are going to a wedding that Saturday.
"Come and join us at the wedding," they say. "Bring along your honeymoon glow. The bride and groom will enjoy seeing such happily married newlyweds."
You decide to attend. Guests include Bellagio locals and international personalities, all celebrating the wedding of Angela Valli, who designs prints for such Italian fashion legends as Valentino, and Alberto Belgeri, a world champion in rowing ("canottaggio").
Michele introduces you, and the just-married couple happily pose in the charming little walkway outside the richly appointed reception room. "Don’t don’t forget to send us the pictures!" they say.
Artistically Rich Italian Lifestyle
You sit on the terrace, and the waiter approaches and takes your order. You both gaze out over the palm tress, your eyes drifting north across the lake, caught by the snow-capped Alps rising majestically toward the sky, even as your skin is warmed by the tropic-like sun of this unique ecological region.
You walk hand in hand to the town and reach the bar Pesticceria San Remo and its outdoor cafe. There are maybe two dozen small tables, each covered with what resembles a rich tapestry, a floral design in muted lavenders, while the sun sets slowly behind the tall mountain range.
The waiters serve prosciutto and melon, light salads, formaggio and fruits to the couples and families surrounding you. You’ve already eaten, so you stick with your iced teas.
Again, just as you have done in the hotel, you marvel at the Italian lifestyle, with its attention to the finest detail of beauty and graciousness.
You also notice there are many more men than women with their children in the streets, playing, eating in the outdoor cafes, proudly wheeling their baby strollers, while the mothers are presumably shopping or at home. Though it’s a scene you seldom see in the States, it’s often repeated here in this family-oriented town.
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2000 Years of Splendor | Love & Marriage, Italian Style | Travel Information
LOVE & MARRIAGE ... ITALIAN STYLE
Like their American counterparts, Italian brides-to-be have a registry, making a list in each shop. Then friends or family ask for the couple’s ?lista nozze? to make their selection of china and ornamental objects. "Usually the ‘lista nozze’ consists of items to display in the home."
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From the hotel: Mountain views, twilight. |
Bachelor and bachelorette parties, while not traditional, are making their way over to Italy’s shores.
Likewise, though the bride does not always throw her bouquet, people have seen it done in U.S. movies and television shows, so now it’s becoming more widespread.
In Italy the couple hold hands and eat the cake together. They cross their arms and drink their first cup of spumanti or champagne together.
Emphasizing the Church Ceremony
Surprisingly, several of our favorite traditions in the States are not part of the Italian wedding. Usually, there is no orchestra, no dancing, no DJ, though the couple sometimes may have a piano. Also, few weddings have floral decorations, though they may bring the flowers back from the church.
There’s not a rule for it, we are told, but since you’re not having any music or any dancing or flowers, most people also prefer a lunch event.
"In the U.S., everything has to be like Hollywood," observes Luca Leoni, owner of Bellagio’s Hotel du Lac, who also heads the town’s hotel association, and, from the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, its manager Guiseppe Spinelli and its chef Hector Bocchia. "But to us, when you emphasize something so much, it becomes unreal."
We are told of an American who proposed to his girlfriend in the hotel with champagne and roses. But before we can even comment, we are assured that, to the Italian man, proposing is not a big production.
La Familia
Given the poetry we see everywhere, we know this is not indicative of a less romantic culture.
However, the Italian courtship ritual does put a greater stress on family: the bride’s, the groom’s, and your new one to come.
Maybe the reality of entering your new life, with its greater emotional and financial responsibilities, its strong link to the two families now joined together, and its focus on children and family, is simply regarded as too serious and mature a step to be further adorned in any way.
Perhaps that is why the wedding day itself is so much more centered on the church ceremony as well.
And when it comes to the romance" of running away to get married and skipping the family-oriented church ceremony, the locals are clear. "People do not elope here," they say.
Child-Centered
We ask about the husband’s apparently large role in the family, having been happily surprised to see many more fathers than mothers caring for their children in public.
Luca, who even as we speak is watching his three young boys, each periodically running up to sit in his lap and ask questions, finds it perfectly natural.
He met his wife when she was a guest in the hotel years ago. "She liked the small town aspects, where it’s easy to meet people and easy to live. She came back year after year, and we started to see each other. After two years, I asked her marry me."
Afterglow
You return to New York and several days later you are back to your usual hectic schedule, but now a deeper element of romance is always present.
Inspired by the richness of life you’ve experienced in the town, you and your husband also have begun listing ideas to add to the registry items you’ve received, and to redesign your home.
A few days pass, and one evening you return home just ahead of your husband only to find roses at your door. You glow once again as you did on your wedding day, but now after your Bellagio honeymoon you are only half surprised to see his simple note. "To my lifelong fellow traveler, with love and affection."
P.S. You also can get married in Bellagio’s thousand-year old Church of San Giacomo, if you bring your own priest to officiate. Just choose one who can be part of your perfect destination wedding.
2000 Years of Splendor | Love & Marriage, Italian Style | Travel Information
22021 Bellagio, Lago di Como, Italy
tel: 39.031.95.02.16, fax: 39.031.95.15.29
e-mail: inforequest@villaserbelloni.it
www.villaserbelloni.it
Hotel du Lac
32-22021 Bellagio - Como
tel: 39.031.95.03.20, fax; 39.031.95.16.24
e-mail: dulac@tin.it
www.fromitaly.net/bellagio/H3/DULAC
Italian Government Travel Office
630 Fifth Avenue, 212.245.4822
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