The hero’s home in Concerto is called Villa Monteverdi, a commanding Italian Renaissance-style villa leading onto lush, colourful gardens with fragrant flowers and olive trees and immaculate lawns and classical statues. The view overlooking the lake is spectacular, affording glimpses of distant villages with their chapels, ancient ruined castles and cheerful coloured-washed mansions.

Villa Monteverdi is a fictional place, but I based it on several famous villas situated on Lake Como. Today, I am taking you on a little tour of these spectacular places.

Villa Carlotta

[Credit: Jean-Christophe Benoist]

This villa at Tremezzo dates back to 1745, when it was built for Marquis Giorgio Clerici. It was named ‘Carlotta’ in 1843 when Princess Marianne of Nassau bought the villa as a wedding gift for her daughter, Carlotta.

Famous guests over the years include Stendhal and Brahms, and the villa is now open to the public as a museum and displays works by Canova, Thorvaldsen, Migliara and Hayez.

Villa Olmo

[Credit: Rehman Abubakr]

This majestic neoclassical villa was commissioned by Marquis Innocenzo Odescalchi and completed in 1812. Both Napoleon Bonaparte and Giuseppe Garibaldi stayed at the villa. Today, you can wander around its extensive gardens, with fountain, statues and super-symmetrical flowerbeds, which are open as a public park, and sometimes the villa itself is open for an exhibition.

Villa d’Este

[Credit: RaminusFalcon]

These days Villa d’Este, in Cernobbio, is a luxury hotel, attracting all manner of influential and wealthy guests. It was built in 1568 by Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio, and between 1816 and 1817 Caroline of Brunswick, soon to become Queen Consort of King George IV, lived here. The gardens retain some of Caroline’s English influence, and are filled with beautiful flowers and plants and some notable statues, including the Nympheum by Pellegrino Pellegrini.

Villa del Balbianello

This villa, near Isola Comacina, was built in 1787 and was home to explorer Guido Monzino, leader of the first Italian expedition to climb Mount Everest. It’s now a museum all about his life and work. The villa is known for its terraced gardens, and it is so beautiful that it is often used as a location for movies.

Villa Melzi d’Eril

[Credit: Marcus90]

Duke Francesco Melzi d’Eril, vice-president of the Napoleonic Italian Republic, had this villa built as a summer residence. The gardens are enchanting, from the hidden cave to the Japanese-style pond, the orangey to the chapel, and so many vibrant flowering plants. No wonder this place was a delight to guests Stendhal and Franz Liszt.

Villa Serbelloni

[Credit: trolvag]

This 1850 villa stands on the site of the Roman Pliny the Younger’s villa ‘Tragedia’. Its gardens were created in the late 1700s by Alessandro Serbelloni. The villa has been a hotel for the last century. Inside are French-style wall coverings, antique Persian carpets, Murano chandeliers, Imperial furniture, marble staircases and trompe l’oeil – grandeur at its finest. The guest list includes monarchs from Spain, Romania, Albania and Egypt, Winston Churchill, Roosevelt, the Rothschilds, JF Kennedy and Clark Gable.