This small village, on the Western coast of lake Lario, is well known for its public gardens, designed by rationalist architect Pietro Lingeri, and for Villa Carlotta, a Baroque mansion surrounded by a magnificent garden which also hosted, in the 19th century, such artists as Gustave Flaubert and Stendhal.

This village, which could even have been founded in the 6th century B.C. by Gauls, has been an exclusive leisure location since the Roman age: Virgilius and Plinius visited the site, the latter even owning a summer residence in the town. Many gorgeous villas have been built in Bellagio and its surroundings throughout the centuries, for example Vill Serbelloni (15th century), now a property of the Rockefeller Foundation.