The Italian Lakes are the Italy of elegance — a landscape of blue water, mountain backdrops and villas with gardens that have been drawing the wealthy and the artistic for two centuries.

Lake Como is the most dramatic of the three — a narrow Y-shaped lake flanked by steep mountains, with the towns of Bellagio, Varenna and Menaggio on its shores and a collection of villas and gardens that is unequalled in northern Italy. The Villa del Balbianello, the Villa Carlotta and the Villa Monastero are all within easy reach of each other.

Lake Maggiore is the most varied — the Borromean Islands in its centre, with the Palazzo Borromeo and the Isola Bella gardens; the town of Stresa on the western shore; and the Verbano coast to the north, where the lake narrows and the mountains close in. The Centovalli railway from Locarno to Domodossola is one of the finest train journeys in the Alps.

Lake Garda is the largest and the most visited — a lake of two characters, with the northern end narrow and dramatic, flanked by mountains, and the southern end broad and gentle, with olive groves and vineyards on the hills above. Sirmione, on a peninsula at the southern end, has Roman ruins and a medieval castle that are among the finest in the region.

The Italian Lakes reward those who arrive in the right season — spring for the gardens, autumn for the light — and stay long enough to find their own version of them.