Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / Italy / Salò / Villa Arcadio Hotel & Resort
Villa Arcadio Hotel & Resort
Salò, Italy · Independent · Accessible Luxury
A fourteenth-century monastery above Salò sat as a ruin until Jaana, from Helsinki, and Francesco, from Brescia, bought it and spent a decade rebuilding. They opened in 2006 with eighteen rooms, the original wall frescoes and terracotta floors left where they were, filled the place with antiques and art, and set a pool on the terrace above the Gulf of Salò. Eleven hectares of olive groves and orchards run down the hill with no neighbours in sight. Jaana's son Aki runs it now, and the kitchen belongs to Glauco, a Mantuan cook raised by cooks.
- 18 rooms
- Opened 2006
About Villa Arcadio Hotel & Resort
- Putting the monastery back took ten years: work began in 1996 and the hotel did not open until 2006.
- There are only eighteen keys, fourteen doubles, three junior suites and one suite, inside a building that was never designed to hold guests at all.
History
The house is a monastery, or a convent depending on which local account you read, dating from the fourteenth century and standing on a wooded hill in the olive country a few kilometres above Salò. It had fallen into ruin by the time Jaana, from Helsinki, and Francesco, from Brescia, found it while looking for a hotel of their own on Lake Garda. Rebuilding began in 1996 and the work was slow: Villa Arcadio finally opened as a hotel in 2006.
The restoration kept what the monks left. Exposed stone walls, original wall frescoes and terracotta floors sit alongside modern Italian furniture, antiques and art the owners collected themselves. There are eighteen rooms in all, fourteen doubles, three junior suites and one suite, most with a balcony or terrace over the water, and the building's age shows in their shapes. A panoramic terrace and an infinity pool look down the Gulf of Salò; a Finnish sauna, Ayurvedic treatments and a gym round out the quieter half of the day. The restaurant, open to the lake, is run by chef Glauco, a Mantuan from a family of cooks who worked in Italian and French kitchens before coming here. Jaana's son Aki now manages the hotel, and the property is graded four-star superior.
The setting
Salò sits at the head of its own deep bay on the Brescian shore of Lake Garda and has the longest lakefront promenade on the lake. It gave the world Gasparo da Salò, one of the very first violin makers, in the sixteenth century, and it gave the world a phrase it would rather forget: from 1943 to 1945 the town was the seat of Mussolini's Italian Social Republic, still known as the Republic of Salò. The hotel is above all that, on the hill at Via Navelli, surrounded by olive groves and orchards, with Gardone Riviera and Gabriele D'Annunzio's Vittoriale a few minutes north along the shore.
Restaurants and bars
- Ristorante @ Villa Arcadio — Restaurant
Experiences
- Customised boat tours — Boat tours on Lake Garda, customised.
- Local wine and olive oil tastings — Offered during the wedding weekend.
- Activities and experiences on Lake Garda — Listed among most requested wedding-weekend experiences.
Amenities
- Restaurant
- Bar
- Panoramic gardens
- Lake-view terraces
- Infinity pool
- Mediterranean gardens
- Dedicated wedding coordinator
- Floral arrangements and decorations
- Photographers and videographers
- Live music or DJ
- Fireworks displays
- Open bar and personalised cocktails
- Hair stylist and make-up artist
- Vintage car rental
- Breakfast or brunch for all guests
- Babysitting service
Open Villa Arcadio Hotel & Resort in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.
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