The Most Beautiful European Villas in Film

Hollywood has had a long love affair with the villa. And it's not just romance movies like Under the Tuscan Sun that revolve around villas. Nearly every genre, from action to comedy, has fallen under the spell of the European countryside. Many of these properties have histories just as interesting and dramatic as the movies they’re featured in, including some that have been used to hide mistresses and even a Mafia arsenal. From a minimalist house in Sweden to UNESCO world heritage sites in Italy, these villas have hosted spies, ballerinas, lovers, and even warriors from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Many of the villas can be rented, or now operate as hotels, so they could also be the backdrop to your next adventure.

Villa d’Este, Tivoli, Italy

Long before its cameos in Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love, Bruce Lee’s The Way of the Dragon, and The Lizzie McGuire Movie, the Villa d’Este was the palace of Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este. Designed by Pirro Ligorio, the palace and its spectacular Renaissance gardens were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.

Villa Balbianello, Lake Como, Italy
Few locations can boast that they’ve hosted James Bond and Anakin Skywalker. Set on the Lavedo Peninsula in Lake Como, Villa Balbianello was built by Cardinal Durini in the late 18th century and was later the home of explorer Guido Monzino. The villa and its gardens were featured in Casino Royale and Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones.

Villa Vignamaggio, Chianti, Italy
Settled by the Gherardini family—relatives of Mona Lisa Gherardini (yes, that Mona Lisa)—starting in the 14th century, Villa Vignamaggio is one of Tuscany’s oldest farming estates. Kenneth Branagh chose the location to serve as the backdrop to his 1993 adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

Villa Malaparte, Capri, Italy

Adalberto Libera’s dramatic modernist design for Villa Malaparte on the island of Capri was destined for the big screen. Overlooking the Gulf of Salerno from its cliffside perch, the villa is still a private residence, but architecture lovers can catch a glimpse by watching Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 film Contempt.

Villa Necchi Campiglio, Milan, Italy
It’s hard to steal a scene from Tilda Swinton, but Villa Necchi Campiglio came close. The opulent 1930s villa, which is located in the center of Milan, was the filming location of Luca Guadagnino’s 2010 film I Am Love. Designed by Piero Portaluppi, the villa was later remodeled in the 1950s by Tomaso Buzzi.

Villa Laura, Cortona, Italy
Villa Laura is a picturesque 17th-century property outside Cortona in Tuscany. Romance fans may know Villa Laura as Villa Bramasole, its name in the 2003 film Under the Tuscan Sun. The villa was completely remodeled in 2006 and now operates as a rental property.

Villa Malfitano Whitaker, Palermo, Italy

Built by Joseph Whitaker in the late 1880s, Villa Malfitano Whitaker was a hub of Sicilian high society during the Belle Époque. Today it is a museum displaying Whitaker’s collections of art and artifacts. In 1990, Francis Ford Coppola chose the villa as one of the filming locations for The Godfather III. And the villa has its own Mafia connection. In 2009, it was discovered that the Mafia was hiding an arsenal in a cave on the property with the help of the gardener.

Villa di Geggiano, Siena, Italy
Over the course of its history, Villa di Geggiano has gone from a country cottage to a grand villa. The property, which is also home to gardens, a theater, and a working vineyard, was named a Monumento Nazionale. Filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci chose the villa for his 1996 movie Stealing Beauty, starring Liv Tyler.

Verdant villa elegance at Lake Como hotel

Perhaps no other locale better evokes the phrase la dolce vita than Bellagio, the fabled Italian resort town known as the pearl of Lake Como. Ever since the early years of the Roman Empire when the poet Virgil wrote about the lake and Pliny the Younger built a hilltop summer villa, visitors have celebrated the sweetness of life in this idyllic lakefront town in Lombardy.

As the 19th-century French novelist Stendhal wrote from his room at Villa Melzi, "I lift my gaze to the most beautiful view in the world," which is a sentiment immediately understood from the perspective of the Winston Churchill Suite at the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni.

With a sly smile, the bellman slides open the window shutters of the palatial suite to reveal a resplendent landscape of Italianate gardens framing Lake Como shimmering in the midday sun. Emerald-green foothills dotted with lakefront villas and towering cypress give way to the snow-covered Alps in the distance — and, right on cue, birdsong fills the suite.

Situated on the cape of the promontory that bisects Lake Como, the majestic belle epoque hotel was built in 1853 as a summer villa for a Milanese family before its conversion 20 years later into Bellagio's grandest hotel. Throughout its history, the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni has been home to European and Russian aristocracy as well as numerous luminaries and entertainers.

For the past 100 years, the hotel has been owned by the Bucher family, whose hotelier experience spans five generations. As managing proprietor Gianfranco Bucher states, "Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni has always been a home for its owners and its guests, many of whom return each season."

In cultivating the atmosphere of an opulent holiday villa open from April to November, the Bucher family is blessed with a staff of gracious professionals who exhibit the uncanny ability to intuit their guests' desires, whether it be an Aperol spritz on the terrace or the services of a sleek, mahogany Venetian taxi boat for a cruise around the lake.

The stately public rooms feature coffered ceilings and trompe l'oeil frescoes alongside French wall tapestries and antique Persian carpets. Portraits in gilded frames are juxtaposed with contemporary sculpture, and art nouveau furnishings glimmer beneath Murano chandeliers. A grand marble staircase leads to the magnificent Royal Hall, where breakfast is served in a neoclassical setting befitting a royal wedding.

In one of those rare instances where the interior spaces are as extraordinary as the surrounding landscape, it's sometimes difficult to choose whether to remain happily ensconced and coddled within the hotel or to wander the lush grounds redolent with peonies, wisteria, jasmine and camellia.

Notable neighbors

Benefitting from a salutary microclimate, Bellagio supports an abundance of Alpine and Mediterranean vegetation that includes olive, laurel, cypress, chestnut and mulberry trees and silk worms. For generations, the region has supported a prosperous textile industry that produces the finest silks and cotton, evidence of which is apparent in hotel linens that caress the skin.

The hotel's indoor pool adjoins a bathing pavilion that leads to the outdoor pool area complete with sandy beach and lake diving platform. Hillside tennis courts are surrounded by the gardens of the neighboring Villa Serbelloni (now owned by the Rockefeller Foundation), which is reputedly the site of Pliny the Younger's villa.

Nearby notable villas include Villa Melzi, located just beyond the Lido and the cobblestoned stairways of Bellagio's city center. A lakefront avenue of plane trees leads to the commanding residence built in 1808 set amid a series of English and Oriental gardens. Accessible by motorboat, the 18th-century Villa del Balbianello became the private museum of the North Pole explorer Guido Monzino, though it remains equally well known for its cameos in the James Bond and "Star Wars" film franchises.

Private motorboat cruises afford glimpses of the villas owned by magnates and celebrities, though few locales are as popular as Isola Comacina, where the convivial inn owner performs a daily fire ritual at lunch to free the isle from an 800-year-old curse.

Perched on the waterfront, the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni's Michelin-starred restaurant, Mistral, is helmed by chef Ettore Bocchia, whose molecular gastronomy fuses perfectly with the polished tableside service that executes an exemplary canard a la presse, which is followed by crepes Suzette served with liquid nitrogen vanilla ice cream.

As the sun sets, music from the Grand Salon's resident trio floats on the gentle breeze. Whether it's an evening walk in the garden or another glass of Champagne or simply slipping between silky-soft bed linens, what's inarguable is the sweetness of life at Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni.

News About European Villas

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