ACQUA di VITA

Is there anywhere in the world quite as elegant as Italy’s Lake Como? Richard Godwin checks in to the newest hotel to arrive on its storied shores, finding a place at once supremely glamorous—and refreshingly unspoiled

- Richard Godwin

IT'S the green of the water that gets you: a deep well of color that, at first sight, gives you the impression that you've hit upon the secret source of all greens. In the shallower parts of Lake Como, the water is like some health-giving broth. Open your eyes underwater and you're swimming around in a wine bottle. In the middle, the water is thick and glossy, like emulsion paint. You can almost imagine a celestial brush swooping down from the hills surrounding the lake, filling its bristles and covering some distant valley. So much more elegant than the turquoise bays and lagoons you see on Instagram.... They should really make sunglasses with lenses the color of the Italian lakes.

Please forgive my sun-lounger musings; Lake Como does this to you. And there are few better spots for greenish contemplations than the pool terrace at Passalacqua, a 24-suite hotel set amid seven acres of terraced gardens that opened last summer on the lake's southwestern shore.

My wife, Johanna, our two sons, and I were subject to a few days of opulence there last September, when the golden, late-summer light, with its slight yet bracing hint of fall, felt well suited to the place's stately mood. Passalacqua had a miraculous effect on our boys, too. Normally Aubrey, the twoyear-old, likes to spend his time shouting and throwing things. But after a bit of splashing around in the dreamy hotel pool, he too fell into a state of contemplation, drifting around in his water wings for long stretches, just gazing at the mountains. I've never seen him so calm.