La dolce vita’ at the Villa receives some added oomph this season as a classic Riva moors alongside throughout the season, ready to take guests for a spin across the lake. Fashioned in wood, chrome and glass, this Italian design icon evokes 50s and 60s jet-set society, flavoured with Monte Carlo, San Tropez and Capri, while also recalling the names of legendary tycoons and film stars who have climbed aboard down the decades.

Its wood panelled, 16-metre pleasure craft, La Contessa - reminiscent of a classic 1920’s river boat - will continue to hold court at the Villa in stately fashion, available to guests for al fresco lunching, cocktails or dinner afloat, a tour of the lake, a drop-off at another Garda location, for instance. By contrast - cutting a racier, edgier dash - it’s the Riva that can guests can now also call upon if they’re after a picnic for up to eight on board, perhaps, or a ‘taxi service’ across the lake to a harbour side restaurant or ahead of a night at the opera in Verona.

Restored Limonaia for outdoor massages - The Villa’s original Limonaia built in the late 1800’s, sheltering a grove of lemon trees, is a short wander away from the main and any one of the guest cottages on the grounds. Restored for the 2008 season, the beams, columns and walls now all hark back to their pristine condition when the Villa’s original owners were in residence over 100 years ago. It was then that lemons were first cultivated in this neck of northern Italian with the realisation that they would thrive here, thanks to the mild, relatively dry winters and hot summers of Lake Garda’s own sub-Mediterranean micro-climate.

That the Villa individually wraps up each Rubensque lemon in foil in the winter months to protect them from the cold, hints at the loving care guests can also count upon from an outdoor massage in the Limonaia as a heady citrus scent fills the air. Under the shade of its historic beams, with sun dappling down in between, this is a magical spot also for curling up with a book for a few hours or enjoying a glass of prosecco. However, it’s not as though the lemons are simply there as a decorative backdrop since they will eventually find their way into the Villa’s home-made limoncello & gelati.

Built in 1892, Grand Hotel à Villa Feltrinelli was designed by the Milanese architect, Alberico Barbiano di Belgioioso for the Feltrinelli family as their summer home. The Villa’s opulence befitted a prosperous family of the time and today still captures the essence of a superbly smart private home yet one with a warm, relaxed and friendly manner. After a major restoration project - the Villa opened as a hotel in 2001. Visible only from the lake and embraced by olive, orange, magnolia and cypress trees, this is where you come to when you want to escape the world.