Villa e Palazzo Aminta Hotel

5 star L - L for luxury, above the rest. This is an Art Nouveau glistening golden crown on the edge of Lago Maggiore in Stresa. As camp as you would expect from a hotel with vintage Hollywood connections, marked by the Liz Taylor suite so we never forget. We booked it to experience the full frou frou glamour of days gone by. It is somewhere between Marlene Dietrich and Quentin Crisp, which is a pleasing immersive experience. You can be immersed in the bouji sparkly jacuzzi in the basement, the ice cool pool outside with lake views, the huge molten volcano of Gorgonzola or the slab of fresh honeycomb at breakfast; it is as you would expect. Excessive, glamorous and ostentatious. The staff there are all so hard working and warm, welcoming and a special shout out goes to Lucrezia for a wonderful treatment. The drivers in the private taxi service - all kind and helpful, such wonderful treats. You may wonder why not 5 stars. We had everything from private drivers to a spa, lake views, extraordinary breakfasts, fuchsia pink robes, Acqua Di Palma products in the bathroom, private drivers in red uniforms, gorgeous bedding, hot and cold well-being from the unheated pool to the jacuzzi, mostly to ourselves as it???s early in the season, the wow factor is real, the winter garden nouveau design, the pink, gold and green Belle Epoque gorgeousness everywhere you look. BUT 1. The room and bathroom were small, the bathtub tiny. Not a 5 star hotel room. 2. The road is very busy and noisy, you can smell exhaust fumes, we had a 3rd floor lake view balcony which is premium. 3. Unfortunate Blackamoor ornaments displayed in the bar and restaurant. This review is purely my opinion except for point 3. There is absolutely no place for blackamoor artefacts, depicting black bodies in servile positions. Even Christy???s and Sotheby???s have removed this from their books. We could not use the restaurant as the entrance is flanked by exotic black figurines from a colonial past that should not be viewed through flamingo pink tinted glasses. Everywhere you look there is a blackamoor statue. There are hundreds of scholarly articles and media pieces about this for further reading. See quote here. Please consider removing these artefacts. You can be vintage glamour without the shameful colonial references. Quote ???In modern times, the blackamoor is considered to have racist connotations, with its association to colonialism and slavery???

This was an exceptional hotel with wonderful amenities and excellent food! We had a quiet room in the older part of the hotel which was once a privately owned villa. The views are breathtaking even in the rain! Each day at breakfast the owner greeted us and aplogized for the weather! We will gladly come again and view the mountains which surround the lake.

This hotel is truly a dream the location has stunning views and the hotel is very beautiful, well appointed and luxurious, the rooms are plush, the bed really comfortable and the rooms are pristine. The marble bathroom complete with bidet was luxurious with all the extras, robes, slippers, shoe shine, mouth wash and a suite of exquisite Aqua Di Parma smelling products for your ablutions that you could expect from a 5 star hotel. The pool, terraces, and gardens are very beautiful, pretty and scenic, an Eden. The food is excellent and all the staff are just wonderful, really helpful, and very friendly it made our holiday very special. It was easy to visit all the islands from Stresa, just catch on off ferry and spend time at your leisure, we visited them all, and fell in love with Isola Bella, we also went to the wonderful tropical gardens and villa at Verbania , as well as locations around the lake, Balveno, Lavenna and more, we also took the train to Locarno, a really beautiful location in Switzerland on the lake, we took a scenic ferry ride back. We also took the train the to Milan and visited the Cathedral and the fort both well worth a visit, the shopping is of course execellent, the hotel helped with all of our trips. Icing on the cake it was my husbands birthday as he received a birthday cake, it was such a lovely gesture, it says it all really. The hotel and the team made our holiday, very special it is a wonderful place to stay.