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Originally
owned by the Beretta family of Belgirate,  the villa was sold to the Napoleonic General Domenico Pino and later
went through a number of owners before it was finally bought by the Milanese editor EmilioTreves
who turned it into a meeting place for literary greats of the period. Frequent visitors included Giovanni
Verga and Gabriele D'Annunzio. The villa was inherited by the editor's  grandson and after various vicissitudes
it became the Hotel Villa Carlotta Convention Centre. Located halfway up the hill overlooking the lake it
boasts splendid views of the Lombard shores and in particular the Sanctuary of
Santa Caterina del Sasso.
To hide the steepness of the slope the villa is approached by a series of terraced gardens with three
symmetrical flights of steps leading up to the entrance. On the first floor is a great balcony. The facade is
characterized by an architraved loggia and below it is a verandah with
portico, once open but now glassed in.
Restoration work undertaken over the years has not changed the original character of the facade, while work
done on the northern side of the edifice has been more considerable and includes a neo-classical colonnaded
addition. The villa is set in a 24,000 sq. meters English-style park with a wide variety of interesting vegetation
and highly prized trees such as sequoias, camphor trees, magnolias and an impressive marina palm that was probably
planted in the 18th century.
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