By Boat to Villa del Balbianello

Setting Off Across Lake Como

Every Lake Como couple photoshoot should begin exactly like this, two people wrapped together at the stern of a classic wooden boat while the whole lake opens up around them. Behind them the hillside town of Como spills down to the water in a cascade of terracotta roofs, and the green mountains rise straight from the shore like the walls of a private world. I hung back across the water to let the sheer scale of Como cradle them, because sometimes the smallest embrace deserves the biggest stage.

A Slow Cruise in Tan Leather

Tucked into the buttoned leather of the cabin, this couple on Lake Como traded the world for a slow cruise and each other’s company. The wake unspooled behind them in a ribbon of white while the villas of the western shore drifted past like scenery painted just for two. These are the quiet, in-between moments I adore, when a boat becomes the most intimate room on the whole lake.

A Kiss on the Open Water

Somewhere out on the open water they stopped noticing the view entirely and reached for a kiss, the kind of unguarded moment a Lake Como photographer waits all afternoon to catch. The wind lifted her hair, the wake churned emerald and white behind them, and the mountains stood guard on every side. This is why I love shooting from a boat, where movement and salt air loosen a couple into their most honest selves.

An Easy Portrait Before the Villa

Some backdrops need no introduction, and Villa del Balbianello rising behind him is one of them, its loggia and famous sculpted trees crowning the point at Lenno. I let he settle into the leather with one arm along the gunwale, relaxed as a man who knows the whole lake is his for the day. A portrait on Lake Como rarely gets more effortlessly cinematic than this.

La Dolce Vita at Villa del Balbianello

Reclined barefoot across the bow in her white dress, she was pure dolce vita, with the terraces of Villa del Balbianello tumbling green behind her. This eighteenth-century villa has charmed everyone from film crews to royalty, yet in this frame it exists only to frame her. Photographing a woman on Lake Como like this feels less like work and more like a scene from an old Italian film.

A Kiss Beneath Villa del Balbianello

Anchored just off the point, they leaned into a soft kiss while Villa del Balbianello and its manicured gardens glowed behind them in the afternoon sun. A little tender boat slid across the background, the lake breathing gently around the hull, and for a moment this couple on Lake Como had the most romantic address in Italy all to themselves. Frames like this are the reason couples cross the world to be photographed here.

Laughter With the Best View in Italy

She perched on the gunwale mid-laugh while he gazed up at her, and the whole Lake Como couple photoshoot melted into something warm and completely real. Villa del Balbianello held its centuries-old pose behind them, but all I saw through the lens was the ease between these two. This is the feeling I chase every single time, grandeur softened by a laugh that no one had to plan.

Passing the Cypress Gardens

They glanced back over their shoulders just as we drifted past one of the loveliest cypress gardens on the whole shoreline, its towering green spires and terracotta villas mirrored in the water. This is the part of a Lake Como couple photoshoot I treasure most, when the boat idles close to a private garden and the whole scene turns into a postcard from another century. All the couple had to do was turn and smile, and the lake did the rest.

Almost a Kiss on the Bow

Barefoot on the bow with their foreheads nearly touching, this couple on Lake Como hovered in that breathless half-second right before a kiss. Behind them the cypress trees stood tall as candles above the villa gardens, and the water held perfectly still, as if the whole lake were holding its breath with me. These are the frames where I stop directing entirely and simply let two people fall into each other.

Effortlessly Cool on the Water

Sunglasses on and chin high, she struck a pose that would not look out of place on the cover of an Italian magazine, with him steady and proud at her side. A Lake Como photographer could not ask for a cooler, more cinematic pairing than these two against a backdrop of cypress spires and villa gardens. Sometimes the most glamorous frame is simply a couple who feel completely at home in the moment.

A Sunlit Portrait Together

Settled shoulder to shoulder in the afternoon sun, the couple gave me the kind of warm, open smiles that no amount of direction can fake. Behind them a little stone bridge arched over the garden’s private harbor while the cypresses stood guard on the hillside. A relaxed couple on Lake Como framed by a garden this beautiful is precisely the image people picture when they dream of this place.

Sailing Off Into the Blue

We ended the day just as we began it, watching the little Angelina carry them off across the water, only now they were wrapped in a kiss as the shoreline of Como glowed behind them. There is no more perfect closing frame for a Lake Como couple photoshoot than two people sailing into the blue, the whole lake spread out like a promise ahead of them. This is the image I will always chase, love and landscape breathing as one.