Spring has arrived on Lake Como

Why visit Lake Como for Easter or Spring time
Easter and Spring-time in general are the most beautiful months to visit Lake Como. It is both quiet and warm. Usually warm enough to sit outside in a t-shirt or light-weight top during the day.  As I type (March 15th), it is already 20 degrees here in Argegno on the western shore of the lake. All of the main attractions (villas and gardens) will be open in time for Easter and less busy than in the summer months. All of the restaurants and bars will have re-opened after their winter closure. The winter ferry timetables will have been replaced by the more regular spring ones at the end of March, making it easier to get around the lake. In short, everything is in full swing, but with fewer people and with an extra hour of daylight to enjoy it all when the clocks change on 28th March.

Where to stay
Accommodation is much cheaper than in the summer months – hotel rooms can cost up to 25% less, as April is not yet high or even peak season. Self catering apartments and villas are another great value choice, offering low prices and more flexibility on both arrival days and length of stay. You are not restricted to arriving on a Saturday or Sunday and havong to pay for a full week, when you only want a long weekend or mid-week break. Lake Como Properties are offering some very special Easter discounts on their self catering villas and apartments.

How to get here
Flights are also cheaper, out of peak summer season. Milan has 3 main airports to take advantage of a host of airlines - Malpensa, Linate and Bergamo. Each airport is well connected to public transport links to bring you directly to Como by either train or bus. And of course car hire is simple and the drive usually takes well under and hour.

Villas and botanical gardens
The first buds are peeping through the soil and the early spring blossoms will be in full bloom by the time Easter arrives. So this is definitely THE best time of the year to visit the stately gardens of Villa Carlotta (Tremezzo), Villa Melzi (Bellagio) and Villa Monastero (Varenna). Camellias, primulas and stunningly colourful azaleas and rhododendrons abound in these beautiful formal gardens.

Shopping and special Easter events
As well as the usual fantastic shopping in Como and the three times weekly market (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday), there are special Easter markets, starting on Holy Thursday, April 1st until Easter Monday April 5th there will be almost 200 colourful stalls drawn from all over Italy concentrate in Viale Varese, Viale Cattaneo and all around Porta Torre area (location of the weekly market)

Also in Piazza Cavour (the main lakeside piazza) you' ll find the traditional Easter Market from March 27th to April 11th, with many stalls selling handicrafts and woodwork items.

In nearby Lugano (Switzerland), the home of the chocolate Easter bunny there is a whole series of events over Easter weekend, again with colourful stalls throughout the city and folk music, as well as the traditional c Concert of the Civic Philharmonic Orchestra in Piazza Battaglini, on Sunday April 4th, at 10.30am.
Religious processions

Religious Events
Join an Easter Sunday or Holy Week procession, which take place in even the smallest villages along the lake. Solemn religious processions are held in many towns on the Friday or Saturday before Easter and sometimes on Easter Sunday. Many churches have special statues of the Virgin and Jesus that play a big part in the processions. The Good Friday procession starts in Como at 3pm.

Public Holidays
National holidays are Easter Monday (la pasquetta), April 25 (liberation day), May 1, and June 2 (Festa della Repubblica). On these days, most shops and services will be closed but many major tourist attractions are usually open.

So what's stopping you. Come and join us and enjoy the spring sunshine on Lake Como


Photographs courtesy of http://www.dr-jonathan.com/


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Why use a Property Search Consultant in Italy?

Why use a Property Search Consultant in Italy?

First of all, let me define the role – a Property Search Consultant, or Home Finder as they are sometimes known, spends time understanding your requirements and then searches for properties that meet your specification, acting on your behalf and providing extensive independent local knowledge. The Property Search Consultant will be able to look at the whole market, including properties that are being sold discreetly and are not available through individual estate agents.  They will not only find you a property, but they will usually ensure that you understand the buying process, act on your behalf in price and contract negotiations, find you a local English-speaking lawyer, help you to arrange a mortgage, open bank accounts and deal with other bureaucratic issues such as getting you a fiscal code. They save you hours of work (trawling the internet, visiting and registering with multiple agents, scouting around your chosen destination and ensuring that you only spend time viewing properties that meet your requirements) and they should ultimately be able to save you money. Read on to find out how...

The benefits of using a reputable Property Search Consultant to find your dream property in Italy

 A good Property Search Consultant will have either met you face to face or had several telephone conversations with you to establish your exact requirements before you start to view properties.  Key questions that ensure the search is tailored to your particular requirements should include:



Do you have a preferred area e.g. Lake Como, Umbria, Le Marche?

Is this an investment purchase, a holiday home or do you plan to relocate?

Do you prefer a rural location or is it important to be near a town or village?

Do you plan to rent out the property?

What style of property are you looking for – modern, historic, renovation project?

How important is it to be close to schools and hospitals? Shops and banks?  Restaurants?

Do you require a property with a swimming pool or any other amenities and what sporting or leisure interests do you hope to pursue?

What is your budget and time frame?

How do you plan to finance the purchase?

In this initial meeting or telephone conversation, the Property Search Consultant should be able to give you good local advice and make suggestions about the area in question. Their experience will assist you in clarifying exactly what you want and possibly even redefining some of your original criteria with their expert local knowledge.  One of the key challenges often is to ensure that you have realistic expectations of an area that you may only have visited as a holidaymaker previously.

All this will then be communicated to their local representative, who should be somebody actually living the area in question, (so if you are looking for a property on Lake Como, they should be living on Lake Como and not in Milan), speaking the local language and with extensive local knowledge, great property contacts and an excellent understanding of the local market, ideally from both a sales and rental viewpoint.

The Property Search Consultant will be unemotional and can steer you away from potentially expensive mistakes and wasted time, by providing a realistic view of the area in question. If you take a property search on Lake Como as an example, did you know that the two shores of the lake have very different attributes that would greatly affect any purchasing decision? And that the popular lakeside resort of Argegno is divided in two by the Telo valley – and one side never sees the sun from November until April? – quite an important element to consider if you were looking for an investment property on Lake Como.

Property Search Consultants are not estate agents. They do not have a specific list of property on their books and so can find the right shortlist of properties for you from a much wider range – basically anything that is on the market and, very importantly in Italy, properties that are not on the public market. This independence allow them to focus 100% on your interests, as they have no allegiance or commitment to any property seller or estate agent.

This also ensures that they can get you the best possible price as, unlike an estate agent, they are not acting on behalf of the seller.

The independence and expert knowledge of a Property Search Consultant works entirely for your benefit.  The service will be tailored to your specific needs and usually provides a complete service from when you first think about purchasing, through to ownership and management of the property beyond.  Not only should you save a lot of valuable time, because the search will shortlist only properties that meet your specific requirements, but you should end up saving money as well.  The fee charged by the Property Search Consultant should be no more than a local agent’s commission and the fact that you have someone acting purely on your behalf to negotiate the purchase terms can save you a great deal of money. 

Paul Belcher of Ultissimo, who have offices in both London and Italy says.........

'Our clients have found great value and reassurance in using our Property Search Service, especially on Lake Como where many of the best properties only change hands discreetly (Italians often do not want others knowing their personal business).  With fees lower than the local agents would usually charge, access to a much wider range of opportunities and a complete end to end service tailored to each individual client’s needs, the advantages of engaging Ultissimo to find your dream property on Lake Como are considerable.  We know the market well and we save our clients time and money.  And perhaps most surprisingly we only charge a fee when a client has found their ideal property – something we are happy to do as we work closely with our clients throughout and will not charge for our services if we cannot not deliver the ideal property at the end of the day! 

Ultissimo can be contacted by email
or by telephone on (0044) 020 3178 4975






Photographs courtesy of http://www.dr-jonathan.com/



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