Villa Monastero takes conferences of up to 88 people in its main hall, smaller workshops in two further rooms, and symbolic wedding ceremonies in its lakeside garden, with twelve bedrooms reserved for conference guests. The former convent stands on the eastern shore of Lake Como at Varenna, in the province of Lecco.
Seminars and company events
The villa runs a conference center with technically equipped rooms, and it also accepts private, corporate and cultural events in its rooms and grounds. The main room is the Sala Fermi, with a view over the lake, a microphone system, an LED wall, a flip chart, live streaming and audio and video recording with direction. It is named after the physicist Enrico Fermi, who gave lectures at the villa. Two smaller rooms take breakout groups and committees. Exclusive use of spaces follows written rules issued by the villa, and event requests are handled by email with the villa office.
Weddings and receptions
Villa Monastero hosts symbolic ceremonies, according to its wedding page, rather than legal ones. Ceremonies for up to 30 guests can be booked online; larger groups send a request form by email at least three weeks before the date. Settings include the lakeside loggia, a neoclassical temple, a marquee and the Giardino degli sposi. Using a room or part of the garden carries a fee, and staying beyond public opening hours costs extra. Decorations must not damage the building: no holes, hooks or glue, and nothing left behind. Drone filming needs authorization from the Province of Lecco.
Rooms and capacities
The Sala Fermi measures about 75 square meters and seats 80 to 88, depending on the page consulted. The Sala Polvani, about 80 square meters, seats 30, and the Sala Didattica, about 30 square meters, seats 15. Outdoor and ceremony spaces are the Loggia a Lago, the Tempietto neoclassico, the Tensostruttura and the Giardino degli sposi; the villa publishes no capacities for them.
Accommodation
Twelve rooms, four single and eight double, are reserved for guests of the conference center. Several have period furniture and most look across the lake toward the Bellagio headland. Each has satellite television, a safe and internet access.
Catering
The villa has a café on site. It does not publish catering packages, so food and drinks for an event should be confirmed with the villa when sending the request.
History and setting
The villa grew out of a Cistercian convent for women, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and founded at the end of the 12th century. Between 1609 and 1645 it was turned into a residence for the Mornico family, who kept it for more than three centuries. Walter Kees of Leipzig renovated it from 1897 to 1909 and extended the garden to its present size, with a lakefront of nearly two kilometers. The De Marchi family bought the property in 1925 and donated it in 1939 so that it would become public and house a museum; the garden opened to visitors in 1940. Today the house museum and the botanical garden can be visited.
Getting there
The address is Viale Giovanni Polvani 4 in Varenna. The village sits on the eastern shore of the lake, with a railway station on the line from Lecco and ferries across the lake to Bellagio and Menaggio.
