History

The birth of Grand Hotel Tremezzo Palace is due to a gentleman from Bellagio, Enea Gandola, who in 1910 chose this extraordinary ground, bordering with the park of Villa Carlotta, to build a Grand Hotel, suitable for the top-quality international tourism of that time. It was a rich and cultured tourism coming from England, Germany, France and Austria, from Belgium and Switzerland, even from tsars' Russia.
The ground, which formed some terraces, belonged to Villa Poncetta, a building from the beginning of the XVIIII century belonging to Emilia Sommariva, Villa Carlotta proprietor's daughter (today Villa Poncetta has become an integrant part of the Hotel and is called Villa Emilia in its proprietor's honour). Enea Gandola and his wife Orsolina had travelled all over Europe and loved beautiful.
After their return to Italy they decided to create something, which could express, in the middle of one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, class and elegance.
They chose this location because, from the natural terraces of the ground, you can admire an incomparable scenery: simply the most beautiful view on Lake Como. So in 1910 they inaugurated the Grand Hotel. It followed a period of great splendour till the beginning of the First World War, which changed the world. For more than a year the Grand hotel was requisitioned and used as a clinic for the army. Then peace came back and it began the rebirth. In the meantime the tourism had changed: the romantic tour, with cultural and sentimental goals, was replace by the pleasure trip, the relaxing holiday stay.
In 1922 the Gandolas sold the Grand Hotel to an entrepreneurs group from the Lake Como, who then sold to Sampietro family that remained proprietor of it till 1975. The outbreak of the Second World War brought with it the collapse of the international tourism but the Hotel never closed down, even in those hard years, which have been followed then by years of splendour and revival. Today, after Sampietro family, it is another family, and not a multinational chain, which goes on with Grand Hotel Tremezzo Palace tradition. Every year important investments, both what renovations concerns, and what new activities and improvements concerns, guarantee the maintenance of its big structure, of its spirit and of the services efficiency and modernity. And the Grand Hotel 5° star, which places it in the elite of the Italian hotellerie, is witness of its success.