Why you should head to Milan or Lake Como for the hoidays

It’s a hectic scene in summer, traveling first to Milan and then onto Como and Co. The Italian lakes are a global tourism hot spot, with trafficky roads, six-figure room rates and reservations at must-try spots near-impossible to score. But wintertime in this part of Italy is when locals and those in the know come out to play.

“People have time to hang out with you, catch up in conversation, because they’re less stressed,” says Andrea Grisdale, who runs IC Bellagio, a luxury travel agency based in the lakes. “Last night, we went to a restaurant we couldn’t go to all season, and the owner pulled up a chair to have a glass of grappa with us at the end of the evening.”

In the past, you needed to own a villa of your own to visit Italy’s most fashionable hubs off-season, as most hotels shuttered for the winter. Now, many stay open all winter thanks to warming weather. The classic, 150-year-old Villa d’Este stayed open for Christmas last year, and will do so again for the first time since it marked the millennium in 1999.

Cape of Senses, a brand-new property on Lake Garda, opened this summer and will only shutter for three weeks in winter for some housekeeping. It joins the 18-room Vista Palazzo Lago di Como, which has stayed open 365 days a year since its debut five years ago.

The award-hogging Passalacqua isn’t open this winter — but only because owner Valentina de Santis is installing an indoor pool with the express intent of operating year-round in future seasons. Wherever you choose to book, says Grisdale, expect a pleasant surprise on rates, which usually hover around half the peak summertime price for Christmas.

In summer, a room could set you back $2,700 a night at Villa d’Este, but that same room will cost $850 in December.

There are three main lakes in the region, and it’s better to skip the more rustic Maggiore in winter and focus instead on convenient, George Clooney-boosted Como, an hour’s drive from Milan, or larger, lesser-known Garda, a further hour east.

The latter has a microclimate that means it’s usually around 10 degrees warmer than Milan, and it’s rare to dip below 50 degrees, even in winter. Come here for an outdoorsy, wellness-focused retreat, staying at Cape of Senses or Lefay Resort, another luxe year-rounder open for the holidays that sits perched on a hill with killer views of the waters (compare rooms from $436 versus $1,090 in summer). For a festive detour, head to the artificial rink in Peschiera del Garda, or Santa’s Grotto in Riva del Garda nearby.

There’s hiking in Como, too: The best route is an easy, 5½-mile stroll up and down through the waterfront villages there, starting in Colonno and heading north to Cadenabbia and known as the Greenway. Pitstop for lunch, or shopping, and you don’t even have to commit to the entire stroll.

“If you’ve had enough, you can get on a boat and go right back to where you came from, because you’re not in the middle of a mountain,” says Grisdale.

Remember, the public boat network doesn’t shutter for the season either, so you can sail around the lake all day for about $20.

There’s another upside to slow-season visits, Grisdale added: “You won’t be surrounded by people from New York like in summer.”

Ho, ho, ho in Milano

Don’t land in Milan and scoot straight to the mountains: It’s worth dawdling in the fash pack’s favorite city, too. Milan is “romantic and magical” at this time of year, says Fulvio de Bonis of Imago Artis, a luxury travel operator. After all, that Christmas staple panettone originated here, and the best place to pick one up, he says, is Pasticceria Marchesi. Don’t miss the windows at Rinascente, Milan’s answer to Bergdorf’s, and book dinner at the rooftop restaurant overlooking the Duomo for a festive evening — the city’s largest Christmas market sits right in front of it.

If you’re in town Dec. 7 to 10, try the classic market, Oh Bej! Oh Bej! in Castello Sforzesco (the oddball name means “Oh beautiful!” in the local dialect). The ABC Home-like Ecliss has a sumptuous decoration department this season, a nod to the fact that nativity scenes as we know them were first displayed in Naples. Indeed, many of the higher-end presepi viventi are still made there. The Navigli neighborhood, once the port, is the twinkliest spot for a few photos, with special lights strung all around the canals there.

And if you want to overnight, try the Portrait Milano, in the fashion quarter, a onetime seminary rebooted as a 73-room luxury hotel which is barely a year old but has already become a luxe fixture — look for the Ralph Lauren-sponsored tree that sits just outside.