Classicist country residence built by the Duke of Lodi in 1808-10 on the shores of Lake Como opposite Villa Carlotta. It belongs administratively to the municipality of Bellagio. Famous for its landscape park, which is part of the "Great Gardens of Italy" association. The park is open to the public from April to October.

The villa was built during Napoleon's rule, designed by Giocondo Albertolli as a country residence for Francesco Melzi, Vice President of the Italian Republic. The owner decorated the building with works by both old masters (Rubens, van Dyck, Reisdal) and his contemporaries (Canova, Appiani, Bossi). Here Francesco and his heirs received such crowned guests as Emperors Franz II (1816, 1825) and Ferdinand I (1838, accompanied by Chancellor Metternich).

In 1837, the composer Franz Liszt visited the villa with his girlfriend Maria d'Agout, who was expecting a child. The information that their daughter Cosima, who later became Richard Wagner's wife, was born here is not true. Around the same years Stendhal visited the villa. In the XX century the estate belonged to Senator Gian Giacomo Gallarati-Scotti (1886-1983), whose mother came from the Melzi family, and whose father held the title of Count Molfetta. The current owners are descendants of the senator.