Inside the Lake Como villa that's hosted everyone from Napoleon to George Clooney – and has been voted the world's best hotel By Victoria Gray For You Magazine Published: 03:01 EDT, 19 October 2024 | Updated: 03:01 EDT, 19 October 2024 e-mail View comments For the conversion of the grand 18th-century villa Passalacqua into a hotel, its new owners turned to J J Martin, designer and founder of La DoubleJ fashion and homeware brand. She helped convert its vast, sunlit glasshouse to a colour-filled setting for lunch, tea or aperitivo, and also designed the poolside bar, the flower-shaped pool umbrellas and more. ‘If I could pick one place to live for the rest of my life, this might be it,’ she says.
The sala della musica at villa Passalacqua. Fashion and homeware designer J J Martin, pictured, worked on the villa’s restoration. Located in the village of Moltrasio on Lake Como, the stunningly restored villa was voted the world’s best hotel in 2023 and again this year.
The structure was rebuilt in 1787 for Count Andrea Lucini-Passalacqua from an original property whose previous owners included Pope Innocent XI and composer Vincenzo Bellini. Guests from Napoleon Bonaparte and Winston Churchill to George Clooney have stayed. Many more have meandered through its gardens of rose, laurel and cedar.
A vase from her brand La DoubleJ In 2022 it opened as a resort following a careful three-year restoration. Valentina De Santis, scion of the Como hotelier family who bought the vill.