From Five-Star Luxury to the Football by Boat, Il Sereno is Lake Como at its Best

About five miles north of the Stadio Sinigaglia, in the stunning village of Torno, Il Sereno is perched right on the edge of Lake Como.

Getting there by car is pleasant enough: 20 minutes or so, depending on traffic on the narrow roads, with the water on your left the whole way.

And while that short ride is perfectly pleasant, there is a route back that will take your breath away.

This five-star boutique hotel has been open since 2016, and from the outside, it screams contemporary, with minimalist architecture, clean, straight lines and huge floor-to-ceiling windows, all nestling nicely into the lakeside landscape. There are 40 suites and every one of them faces the water, offering views it is impossible to tire of.

Despite the modern look, many of the features from the building’s days as a boathouse have been kept – the spa sits beneath the original stone arches which date back a century, while the restaurant, so close to the water you can hear it lapping against the shore, retains the original grey stone walls and sits above where the boats were hauled in for shelter.

These days, Il Sereno has four handcrafted wooden boats. And they are beautiful. Three of them, Ernesto Riva Jettos, are moored, just waiting for guests to hop aboard and set sail for the other towns and villages on the lake. 

There’s also a Vaporina del Lago Riva boat. Bigger and bolder, this one comes with its own captain and can drop you off near the Sinigaglia in about 10 minutes. How’s that for arriving at the match in style?

In truth, style oozes from every corner here, from the lobby bar to the gym, and from the pool that almost hangs over the lake itself and every one of those suites.

And there’s a price to match. At the very top end, the Darsena Listening Suite is around €5000 per night in low season, rising to nearer €9000 in the height of summer. It’s soundproofed and has hundreds of records on a shelf running the length of the 200 m² room, as well as a turntable and McIntosh amplifier to play them through, plus an original Revox reel-to-reel tape deck from the 1970s. Away from the music, there’s a master bedroom, a huge walk-in wardrobe, two bathrooms, a wet bar and a lakeside terrace with steps down to the water.

The Destination Calcio budget didn’t stretch to a night in the Darsena but we did enjoy a tour of the hotel while there for lunch during the Como Cup in the summer. We bumped into Crystal Palace owner Steve Parish in the lobby, while Como players and staff have been known to enjoy a meal at Il Sereno.

The kitchen is under the charge of Neapolitan chef Raffaele Lenzi, and is the only Michelin-starred restaurant on the lake. Lunch costs €98 for two courses and €128 for three – the grilled scallops with snow peas and purple potato chip, followed by the Milanese-style veal cube, Swiss chard, lime and spicy sauce and, of course, the tiramisu, made the meal worth every cent.

From there, maybe after a drink in the lobby bar, take the boat. With the lake stretching out in front of you and the Sinigaglia in the distance, there can’t be many better ways to go to a game.