The lake is not the view here, it is the floor. Up to a hundred guests, and the music stops outdoors at half past nine.Prices updated October 2026 · by Katerina
An eighteenth-century villa on a promontory that runs out into Lake Como, near Limonta, with two hundred metres of private shoreline and a ten-thousand-square-metre botanic park of more than a hundred and thirty species behind it. There is a pool, a dock, a terrace under a retractable tent, and from almost anywhere on the property the water is three steps away.
What couples who marry here talk about afterwards is not the villa. It is that their guests swam in the lake. Aura is one of very few properties on Como where that is not a photograph but an afternoon, and it is the reason to choose it over a grander house further up the hill.
We planned a wedding here in August 2025, for fifty guests. The photographs on this page are from it.
capacity
Three nights, and then you choose how much of it is a wedding
Aura is let as a house, not as a venue. You cannot take it for the afternoon of your wedding and hand the keys back at midnight: the villa comes with a minimum of three nights in high season, and that is the frame everything else sits in.
Within that frame you choose how much of the weekend is a programme.
One event. The wedding, and nothing else scheduled. You and the sixteen people sleeping at the villa simply live there for the other two days: the pool, the park, the lake, dinner wherever you feel like it. This is the quieter and cheaper of the two, and for a couple who find three days of hosting exhausting it is often the better one.
A weekend with a programme. The wedding plus a welcome drink, a pizza party the next evening, a farewell brunch, as many as you want. Each extra event carries a fee from the villa and a separate quote from Class Eventi, so this is a real decision rather than a free upgrade. It is also, in our experience, the version your guests remember.
Sixteen people sleep on the property, so in both versions the wedding party and both sets of parents move in and everyone else comes for the day. Your celebration is the middle of something longer, which is what this house is for.
Why it is worth it. Aura is still owned by the family who have kept it for four generations, and that is the whole economic story of this villa. It is not an asset being yielded by a management company, which is what most of the comparable houses on this lake now are. The price has stayed where a family thinks it should be rather than where a spreadsheet does, and the result is the best value for money on Lake Como at this level. We say that having priced all of them.
The market has noticed. Dates here go two to three years ahead. That is not a sales line, it is why 2027 is already gone and why 2028 has bookings in it while most couples are still choosing a country.
at a glance
At a glance
100and not one more
Budget level: €60,000 to €150,000budget level
Where
Via Diaz 22, Limonta, Oliveto Lario, eastern shore of Lake Como
Bellagio
30 minutes, and the town hall for a civil wedding
Airports
Malpensa about 1 hour 30, Linate about 1 hour 15, Bergamo about 1 hour 15
Format
Three nights minimum in high season. One event, or a weekend with a programme. The villa is never let for the event day alone
Guests
Up to 100, ceremony and dinner
Sleeping on site
16, in 7 bedrooms plus a suite on request
Ceremony
Symbolic or a blessing on the property. Civil at Bellagio town hall, same day possible
Ceremony spot
One: under the tree, facing the water
Dinner
On the 102 m² terrace under a retractable tent, up to 100 seated
Rain plan
The main hall, the same 100 guests
Catering
Class Eventi, mandatory, including for the smallest weddings and for the days you stay
Music
Outdoors until 9.30 pm, indoors until 1 am. Dancing is indoors only
Event ends
1 am, no extension at any price
Pool
For guests staying at the villa only. No pool party, no music at the pool
The lake
Guests can swim, and they do
Parking
35 cars at the entrance on an event day, 5 inside the gates. No coaches, the road is narrow: minivans
Access
Gravel throughout, difficult for a wheelchair
Drones
Allowed
Pets
Not allowed, unless the villa agrees in writing
Season
Late May to early October
the villa
The villa, the park and the water
The house sits on a promontory, which is the whole point of it. Most Como villas look at the lake from above, across a road and a wall. Aura is on the water on three sides, with two hundred metres of private shoreline, a jetty six metres long, and a park that runs down to it.
The park is ten thousand square metres and genuinely botanic, more than a hundred and thirty species, with fountains and old trees. During a wedding the part of it to the right of the stairs is yours. It is also where the ceremony happens, under one particular tree facing the water, which is the only ceremony spot here and does not need improving.
The terrace is a hundred and two square metres under a retractable tent, and it seats a hundred for dinner. String lights under the marquee are included rather than rented, which sounds minor until you price festoon lighting for a hundred guests. The tent is not a wet-weather measure bolted on for the day, it is part of the house, which is why rain at Aura is an inconvenience rather than a crisis.
The house itself is seven hundred square metres over three floors with a lift. Ground floor: living, dining, a reading room, kitchen, laundry. First floor: seven bedrooms, four doubles and three twins, each with its own bathroom, plus a study with a lake view and a step-out balcony. Second floor: a suite, a gym, a sauna, a billiard room.
During the wedding itself the billiard room, the sauna and the gym are closed, and the pool is for swimming only by the people sleeping at the villa. The ground floor, the reading room, the park, the jetty and the parking in front of the gate are the event. That is a lot of property, and it is worth knowing the shape of it before you plan a cocktail hour by the pool that cannot happen.
Sunset is behind the house, on the pool side. The ceremony faces the water and the light comes across it rather than into the camera, which is the right way round and not an accident.
rooms
Where your guests sleep
Sixteen people, and not one more. The villa is firm about this because the names of everyone staying have to be filed with the police, which is Italian law rather than villa policy.
Seven bedrooms on the first floor, four doubles and three twins, each with its own bath or shower, furnished with period pieces. The seven rooms sleep fourteen. A suite on the second floor, one bedroom with its own sitting room and bathroom, is available on request and priced separately, and takes you to sixteen.
Breakfast and daily housekeeping are not in the rental and are offered at extra cost. We usually take them, because the alternative is twelve people making coffee in one kitchen on the morning of a wedding.
Everyone else stays nearby. For a wedding of fifty or eighty, that is most of your list, and the hotels around Oliveto Lario and Bellagio are where they go. We choose them around what your particular guests care about and run the shuttles both ways. Be aware that the road to the villa is narrow: a fifty-seat coach does not come down it, so transfers are minivans, which is more vehicles and more coordination than people expect.
Getting ready. The bride takes the suite. The groom has the reading room or one of the guest rooms, which works, and there is no dedicated room for hair and makeup, so we build that into the floor plan rather than discovering it on the day.
the days
The weekend
Three nights minimum, so the shape is fixed and, in our experience, this is the best version of it.
Day one. You and your families arrive, settle in, swim. Dinner outside, early, because the evening is for the lake rather than for a programme.
The wedding day. Getting ready upstairs with the water in the window. The ceremony under the tree in the late afternoon, aperitivo in the park, dinner on the terrace under the tent, and the dancing moving indoors at half past nine, which is the one thing about this villa you plan around rather than fight.
Day two. The pizza party. Class Eventi bring a wood oven and a pasta corner, guests make their own pizza if they want to, and this, more than the wedding, is the day your friends talk about afterwards. Then the lake again.
In between there is Bellagio thirty minutes away by road or twenty by water, Varenna across the lake, the botanic park to walk, and the boat. The jetty takes a small boat and the lake decides: if there is any swell, guests go to Bellagio and come back by road, and we plan both versions rather than hoping.
ceremony
The ceremony, and what Italy requires
On the property, the ceremony is symbolic. There is no civil registration at Aura and there is no church on the grounds. Say that out loud early, because it is the single fact most likely to change a couple's plan.
For a legal wedding we go to Bellagio. The town hall there marries you, it is thirty minutes from the villa, and it can be the same day as your symbolic ceremony. Most of our couples do exactly that: sign in Bellagio in the morning, drive back, and marry properly in front of their people under the tree in the afternoon. We prepare the Nulla Osta, the translations, the apostilles, book the hall and bring the interpreter the law requires.
A catholic ceremony means a church elsewhere on the lake and a file that takes six months through your parish, your diocese and the Italian diocese. If your date is closer than that, the answer is Bellagio plus a symbolic ceremony at the villa, and we will say so on the first call.
The ceremony spot. One, under the tree, facing the water, up to a hundred seated. We are not going to pretend there is a choice, and after a season of looking at it we would not want one.
Confetti and sky lanterns are forbidden, not by this villa but across Lake Como. Petals and sparklers are fine. Candles go in glass. Decor is hung and staked within reason and everything leaves as it was found, which at a listed house in a botanic park is a stricter rule than it sounds. Classic fireworks we are still checking, and if they are possible at all it is from the water.
season
Season and availability
Late May to early October. That is our own answer rather than the villa's brochure. Before late May the lake is too cold to swim in, and swimming is half of why you are here. After early October the evenings on the terrace need heaters, which we can bring, but the garden has stopped performing.
April and October work with patio heaters and a shorter evening outdoors. July and August are hot and busy on the water, and that is when this particular villa is at its best, because your guests can get into the lake.
There are no mosquitoes. We mention it because every couple asks about a lakeside wedding in August, and at Aura the honest answer is a flat no.
Availability. A family-owned villa at this price on this lake books two to three years ahead. 2027 is gone. If your date is in 2028 or later, now is the right time to ask.
plan b
If it rains
The ceremony moves into the main hall, which takes the same hundred guests, and dinner stays on the terrace because the terrace is under a retractable tent.
No marquee to book, no non-refundable deposit, no go or no-go decision four days before the wedding. On Lake Como that is rare enough to be a reason in itself.
table and music
The table, and the half past nine rule
Catering is Class Eventi, and that is not negotiable. The villa contracts them and they cook for everything, including a dinner for two and including the days you are simply staying. You cannot bring your own chef, your own baker, your own wine or your own champagne, and there is no corkage that makes it possible.
That sounds restrictive and it is, but it is a good kitchen and knowing it well is worth more than choice. The dinner is cocktail hour, passed canapés, three courses at the table, a fruit and pastry corner, wine, coffee and water, with service from four in the afternoon until one in the morning. Tables, Chiavarine chairs, white linen, English ceramic chargers and silver are theirs, so your decor budget goes to flowers and light rather than to rental.
A tasting is available on request. Kosher, halal, gluten-free and allergies are all handled. There is a children's menu. The wedding cake is theirs, up to three tiers, and the flowers on it are your florist's.
The one rule that shapes the whole evening
Music outdoors stops at 9.30 pm. After that, until one in the morning, all music is inside the villa. This is not a noise guideline, it is in the contract: the property sits in a residential area, the sound systems are the villa's own and certified, and tampering with them carries a three-thousand-euro fine. Percussion instruments are prohibited. Live bands outdoors are prohibited. Building a platform or a structure for dancing is prohibited. The villa works with one music supplier, Bonus Malus. Our understanding is that the exclusivity covers the equipment rather than the performers, so your own DJ or strolling musicians can play through their system, and we confirm that in writing for your date before anyone is booked.
So the dance floor is indoors, and dinner on the terrace has to end in time to move everyone inside while the evening still has momentum. Designed well, that transition is one of the nicest moments of the night. Designed badly, half your guests go to bed at ten. This is the single thing we think about hardest when we build a timeline at Aura, and it is the reason we would rather plan this villa than hand it to someone planning it for the first time.
The event ends at one in the morning and does not extend, at any price. At that point only the sixteen people on the booking form may remain on the property.
budget
What your budget looks like
Budget level: €60,000 to €150,000
Two formats, two bands, and the gap between them is the clearest answer we can give to what a programme actually costs.
●○○ The wedding only, nothing else scheduled. The lower band, €60,000 to €90,000, for everything: the villa for three nights, the Class Eventi table, every supplier, Italian taxes and our work. Thirty guests sits there comfortably. By fifty you are crossing into the middle band, because the villa costs the same either way and only the table grows.
●●○ A weekend with a programme. The middle band, €90,000 to €150,000. The wedding plus a welcome drink, a pizza party and a brunch. A hundred guests over a full weekend sits in the upper half of it.
On the first call we will tell you which of the two versions of Aura your particular group actually wants, and it is not always the bigger one.
The season moves this more than the guest list does. A Tuesday in October costs materially less than a Saturday in August for the same house and the same hundred people, because the villa prices the night of the event by day of the week and by season. We will say so before you ask.
And a word on what this number buys. Aura is one of the few houses of this quality on Lake Como still owned by the family who built its reputation, and it is priced accordingly. Put the same hundred guests, the same three days and the same lakefront into a managed villa further up the shore and the number is materially higher for a weekend that is not better.
One thing that helps the number: because Class Eventi supply the tables, chairs, linen, glass and china, there is no furniture hire on top. At most private villas that line alone runs three to five thousand euros.
What the number covers
Planning, design and coordination from the first call to the last transfer, with two coordinators on the wedding day
The villa for three nights and beds for sixteen
The Class Eventi table: cocktail hour, dinner, wine, cake, open bar, and the pizza party the day after
Symbolic ceremony under the tree
Photographer, film, flowers and decor, hair and makeup, DJ
Lighting, transfers in minivans, and every Italian tax and fee, stated from the start
What it does not cover
Flights, what you wear, the rings, hotel rooms for the guests who are not among the sixteen, and the genuinely optional, such as the ice cream cart or a boat day.
Every wedding is costed individually. You get a line-by-line estimate for your date after the first call.
honest limits
What we would not do here
01
We would not bring a couple here who want to dance under the stars.
Music outdoors ends at half past nine and dancing is indoors. It is the first thing we say about this villa and the reason some couples choose another one, which is the right outcome for everyone.
02
We would not sell Aura to a couple who only want a Saturday.
The villa is never let for the event day alone, and three nights is the floor. You can have one event and spend the rest of the time quietly, but you are renting a house either way.
03
We would not plan a cocktail hour at the pool.
During the event the pool is closed for swimming and for serving food, and music is not allowed in that area at all. It photographs beautifully and it is off the plan.
04
We would not promise grandparents an easy day.
There is gravel across the whole property and steps between its levels. We can make it work, and we would tell you in advance rather than watch it happen.
05
We would not book a coach.
The road is too narrow. Transfers are minivans, which means more vehicles and a tighter arrival schedule, and we would rather build that in than discover it.
06
We would not count on arriving by boat.
The jetty is six metres and the lake decides. Our plan B is always Bellagio and minivans, and we hold it from the start rather than improvise at four in the afternoon.
07
We would not promise a wedding in April.
The lake is too cold to swim in, and swimming is most of why you chose this villa.
our part
What we carry
The villa gives you the house, the park and the water. Class Eventi give you the table. Everything else that turns a beautiful property into your wedding is ours, and it happens in Italian.
Katerina lives on Lake Como and Laura is in Milan. Between them they know what the terrace looks like at seven in August, which guest room the groom should take, and how long minivans actually need from Bellagio on a Saturday in July.
The booking. Dates, the rental contract, the Class Eventi contract, the security deposit.
The paperwork. Nulla Osta, translations, apostilles, the Bellagio town hall and the interpreter, and the six-month church file if you want one.
The timeline. Which at this villa means designing the move indoors at half past nine so that it feels like the evening escalating rather than ending.
The suppliers. Flowers, photography, film, beauty, music. Your own DJ is welcome, through the villa's equipment.
Your guests. Hotels for everyone beyond the sixteen, minivans both ways, the boat plan and the plan for when the boat is off.
The day. Two coordinators, from set-up to the last song.
Where the money goes. At Aura the decision that moves your budget most is not the flowers and not the guest count. It is the number of nights, and we will tell you honestly when a fourth night buys you more than anything else on the list.
We take a limited number of weddings each season.
photos
More from Villa Aura del Lago
our weddings here
We have planned weddings in this house
Daria and Ivan
19 August 2025, fifty guests, a symbolic ceremony under the tree and the pizza party the next evening. They live in Germany and brought their families from three countries.
For a year and a half we planned our fifty-guest wedding at Villa Aura together with WowItaly. Everything was perfect from the very beginning: easy communication, honesty, real attention to detail. Our friends and family all agreed that the day turned out wonderful and truly heartfelt.
How much does a wedding at Villa Aura del Lago cost?
The wedding alone, with three nights at the villa, sits in the lower band, €60,000 to €90,000, at around thirty guests. A full weekend with a programme sits between €90,000 and €150,000. Both include the villa, the catering, every supplier, Italian taxes and our work. You get a line-by-line estimate for your date after the first call.
Where is it?
Via Diaz 22, Limonta, Oliveto Lario, on the eastern shore of Lake Como. Bellagio is thirty minutes.
How do guests get there?
Milan Malpensa about an hour and a half, Linate and Bergamo about an hour and a quarter. The road to the villa is narrow, so transfers are minivans rather than a coach. There is parking for thirty-five cars at the entrance on an event day, and five inside the gates.
How many guests?
Up to a hundred for the ceremony and for dinner on the terrace.
How many can sleep there?
Sixteen, in seven bedrooms plus a suite on request. Everyone else stays in hotels nearby and we run the shuttles.
Can we book it just for the wedding day?
No, the villa is never let for the event day alone. Three nights is the minimum in high season. You can have only the wedding and spend the other days privately, or add a welcome drink, a pizza party and a brunch, each for an extra fee.
Can we marry legally at the villa?
No. The ceremony on the property is symbolic. The civil wedding is at the Bellagio town hall, thirty minutes away, and it can be the same day. We prepare every document and bring the interpreter.
Can we have a catholic ceremony?
In a church elsewhere on the lake, and allow six months for the paperwork.
Can we dance outside?
No. Music outdoors ends at 9.30 pm and dancing is indoors, until 1 am. This is in the villa's contract, not a guideline.
Can we bring our own DJ or band?
Your own DJ yes, and strolling musicians yes, but they play through the villa's own sound system. Percussion instruments and bands are not allowed, indoors or out.
Can the party go past 1 am?
No, at any price.
Can we choose our own caterer?
No. Class Eventi cater everything, including the days you are simply staying at the villa.
Can we bring our own cake, wine or champagne?
No, and there is no corkage.
Is there a menu tasting?
Yes, on request.
Can they cook kosher, halal, gluten-free?
Yes, and for allergies, and there is a children's menu.
Can our guests use the pool?
Only the sixteen staying at the villa, and not during the event. No pool party, and no music at the pool.
Can our guests swim in the lake?
Yes, and they will. It is the best thing about this villa.
What happens if it rains?
The ceremony moves into the main hall, which holds the same hundred guests, and dinner stays on the terrace under its retractable tent. Nothing to book, nothing to decide in advance.
Are drones allowed?
Yes.
Sparklers, confetti, fireworks?
Sparklers and petals yes. Confetti and sky lanterns are banned across Lake Como, not just here. Fireworks, if at all, only from the water, and we are confirming that.
Are there mosquitoes?
No.
Is it accessible?
Honestly, not easily. Gravel across the property and steps between levels.
Can we bring our dog?
Not unless the villa agrees in writing.
When is the best time to marry here?
Late May to early October, because the lake is warm enough to swim in. April and October work with heaters and a shorter evening outdoors.
Is 2027 available?
No. Dates here go two to three years ahead, and 2027 is already booked. Ask now for 2028 and later.
Why not book the villa ourselves?
You can. The villa gives you the house, Class Eventi give you the table. The paperwork, the design, the timeline around the half past nine rule, the hotels, the minivans and the day itself are the rest of the wedding.
first step
Let's see whether it is yours
Marina, who founded WOWITALY, answers every inquiry herself. The first video call is with Katerina, it costs nothing, and it is not a sales call.
2027 is gone, and that is the point. We would rather tell you here than after a call. A family-owned villa at this price on this lake books two to three years ahead, which is exactly what you would expect and exactly why it is worth planning around. If your date is in 2028 or later, now is the right time to ask.
Tell us your dates, how many people you want around you, and what you would like your guests to say about the weekend afterwards. That last one tells us more than the budget does.
We will check availability, and set up a call. On it you get our honest read on whether a villa where the music stops outdoors at half past nine is the right house for your particular group, real numbers for your date, and, if it is not, the two or three on this lake that are.
A cardinal's villa on the western shore of Lake Como, restored by Jacques Garcia and made famous by House of Gucci. Three ways to marry here, and the real numbers for each.
Prices updated October 2026 · by Katerina
