Villa Carlotta — Attraction in Tremezzina

We are in our 60s travelling with our daughter in her 20s. I am registered disabled but can walk a bit. A lot of steps can be difficult. Worried about parking (very limited near to the Villa) we arrived 30 mins before opening to be able to park in front of it. On the site it says disabled are free & in some cases a carer too. This is not marked on the price list at the villa. I showed my pass & both hubby & I got in free (although I don’t need a carer!). There is a lift to the house level for wheelchairs, prams etc. We visited the museum first. Some have criticised its emptiness. We found it was absolutely beautiful. The ceiling of the rooms, notably on the second floor(3rd storey for the US) were exquisite. There were beautiful marbles & the third floor gave you an idea of how the rooms would have been 200 yrs ago. Moving on to the gardens .. they are quite big and on a hill side. 3 tours are marked: long, short and wheelchair. There are very pretty areas available to see on the flat leading to the cafe. The view of the lake are spectacular . We had ice-creams and drinks there and found they were pretty good value - for Lake Como or any European hot spot. I felt like trying some of the rest of the garden. We didn’t see it all but what we did see was really beautiful. We had missed most of the rhododendron and azaleas but the hydrangeas were coming out. There are a lot of steps but they are shallow so not too difficult on the knees. Also you just need to turn around and look at the magnificent lake view for a minute if you are out of puff! We saw 6 gardeners at work so you can imagine the scale of upkeep the Villa gardens require. It was a lovely morning out (about 2h45) which ended in the gift shop. Some items were pretty reasonably priced, soap, tote bags … I read somewhere that people with U.K. National trust membership might get a reduction on proof…. as it’s the Italian National Trust equivalent . NB Buying tickets for disabled is not...

The garden is cute and the villa is nice overall, but nothing out of this world, I’ve seen many much more beautiful. The worst part of our experience was a very rude and aggressive staff member who in a very rude and nasty attitude told my family to lower our voices and be careful with a very ugly backdrop fabric that didn’t seem part of the museum pieces. As a family of 8 with mostly children I can understand if we are told to tone it down and be careful because in conversation maybe we laugh a little loud at a moment, but we were never extraordinarily loud and definitely shouldn’t have been treated the way we were. After shouting at us in a very ugly manner, my dad simply tells him he should talk to people nicer and the guy exploded. I had to step in bc the man seemed like he was going to start a physical fight. I step in to defuse the situation and the man is not understanding and says the most obtuse things like “I gave you a sign already by standing there”. Like what do you mean standing here where you’re supposed to be is a sign to people who are busy taking pictures and conversating. My dad tells me “don’t bother talking to him he’s unreasonable” and this man loses it again and starts yelling “what!? What did you say!?!” while walking at my dad and getting in his face to start a fight. It was horrible to see someone get so aggressive and threatening around my family and especially around my toddler brother and my younger sister. A person with no manners and dying to get into a fight should not be working...

I booked it through Get Your Guide (GYG), that went through Rigamonti Viaggi SRL. GYG was not very helpful and blatant on informing me all the details. I made booking with them months in advance and less than a week before my trip, they informed me that i need physical vouchers for my trip. I had already begun my holiday, i don't have access to a printer and unfortunately, the hotel i wanted to print from had trouble with the printer. On the day of my trip that was using these vouchers, the Rigamonti staff at the ferry at Lake Como was very helpful, guy's name was Mohammed. Very much loved his service and wanting to go above and beyond. Please commend him accordingly.

Don't buy from GYG. It's so misleading and untrustworthy.

The location itself was beautiful. Spent only about 1.5hrs there but i think we could have extended it if we want to. Wheelchair friendly and has a nice cafe nearby. Lovely place with amazing photo opportunities. A tad crowded as alot of school groups...