Seminars and company events
Grand Hotel Villa Balbi suits seminars, incentive stays and receptions for up to 80 guests, with four meeting rooms in a seventeenth-century villa on the seafront of Sestri Levante, on the Ligurian coast east of Genoa. The hotel has 105 bedrooms, so a group can meet, eat and sleep in the same place.
The main space is the Salone delle Feste, a room of 75 square meters (10 by 7.5 meters) decorated with seventeenth-century frescoes and period paintings. It seats up to 80 people theatre style and comes with conference equipment, a sound system, air conditioning and technical support. A reception atrium of 48 square meters sits next to it and can serve for registration, coffee breaks or a small exhibition, and four support rooms of 35 square meters each are available for breakout groups or storage.
The Sala Balbi takes up to 60 people theatre style and can be split by movable walls into three rooms of 20, a practical choice for workshops after a plenary session. The Sala dei Velieri, hung with large photographs of traditional Ligurian sailing boats, seats up to 25 for a training session or a board meeting. The Sala dei Pesci takes 10 to 16 people for a small meeting or a working lunch.
Weddings and receptions
The villa sells weddings, and its banqueting service also covers private parties, anniversaries and other family occasions. The period rooms give a ceremony or a dinner a historic backdrop, while the park and the pool area add outdoor space around the house. Ask the hotel which outdoor areas can be used for an aperitif or a reception, since the website does not list them as event spaces.
Accommodation
The 105 bedrooms include the Cardinal Brignole room, which keeps its former throne room. Guests also have access to a park of about one hectare with a swimming pool and to a reserved beach about 50 meters from the hotel. This makes the villa a good fit for a two- or three-day seminar where free time matters as much as the sessions.
Catering
Catering is in-house. The hotel runs its own restaurant and a banqueting service for weddings and events, and the Sala dei Pesci is offered for working breakfasts and lunches. In season, breakfast can be served in the garden by the pool.
History and setting
The villa dates from the seventeenth century. According to the hotel, the Doges of Genoa chose Sestri for its construction, and the house passed to the noble Balbi family in the mid-nineteenth century. Their coat of arms, three barbel fish, still appears on the coffered ceiling of the Sala dei Pesci, which served as the family dining room in the early 1900s.
Getting there
The hotel stands at Viale Rimembranza 1, close to the beach. Portofino is about 30 kilometers away and the Cinque Terre about 42 kilometers, both easy excursions for a group program. Genoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport is the nearest airport, and Sestri Levante has a railway station on the line between Genoa and La Spezia.
