CHAT WITH NOA

Go next door …

The most interesting places are rarely the most famous ones. They are the ones just beside them, sharing the same light, the same landscape, the same culinary tradition, but without the crowds, the prices, and the performance. This week, three destinations that live in the shadow of somewhere everyone knows. All three, we think, are more interesting than the place that overshadows them
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In the Shadow of Lake Como - Lake Orta

The Lake Como Crowd Has Never Found. Yet.
Smaller than Como. Quieter than Como. An island in the middle with a medieval monastery and a village of cobbled lanes that feels unchanged for three centuries. And a hotel that Como, for all its grandeur, cannot match for intimacy.
Lake Orta is the smallest of the Italian lakes and the least visited, a fact that will not remain true for long. The medieval village of Orta San Giulio clings to a promontory above the water, its Baroque facades and narrow lanes opening onto lake views at every turn. At the centre of the lake, Isola San Giulio, a small island of monastery and cobblestones, reachable by rowing boat from the village carries a single inscription on its path: ‘The way of silence.’ Walk it. It takes fifteen minutes and changes the pitch of the day entirely.

Omick Travel Guide

The Vibe: Smaller, quieter, and featuring a medieval monastery on an island where the only path reads: “The way of silence.”
Best Time: May to June and September (warm, uncrowded)
Access: 1 hour from Milan Malpensa Airport / 1.5 hours from Milan city centre

Villa Crespi

Relais & Chateaux · Three Michelin Stars

An extraordinary 19th-century Moorish villa minarets, horseshoe arches, arabesque plasterwork built by a cotton merchant who had fallen in love with the architecture of the Middle East and rebuilt it on the shores of a Piedmontese lake. Fourteen rooms only, each individually furnished with antiques. Chef Antonino Cannavacciuolo’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant is among the finest in northern Italy: Mediterranean in soul, technically precise, rooted in the produce of Piedmont and the sea. The juxtaposition of Moorish architecture, Italian lake, and Neapolitan-born chef is not a contradiction. It is, somehow, completely coherent.

Crossing Approved: The tasting menu, an overnight stay, and breakfast in the garden the following morning, the combination is one of the most singular hotel experiences in Italy. Ask us to arrange it. We know the property well and will ensure you have exactly the right room.
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In the Shadow of Porto - Amarante, North Portugal

One Hour from Porto. Nobody Goes There. That Is the Point.

A Roman bridge over the Tâmega River. A 16th-century monastery on the opposite bank. Azulejo-tiled buildings reflected in the water. Vinho Verde vineyards climbing the hills above the town. And one of Portugal’s finest Relais & Châteaux hotels, renovated in 2025, overlooking all of it.

Amarante is what Porto was thirty years ago a genuinely beautiful historic town, largely undiscovered by international visitors, with good food, excellent wine, and the particular quality of a place that has not yet been told how charming it is. The São Gonçalo Bridge and its matching monastery are among the most photographed sights in northern Portugal, and at evening, when the town’s restaurants spill out onto the riverside and the monastery glows above the water, it earns every photograph. The Douro Valley wine country begins within a short drive.

Quick Travel Guide

The Vibe: A completely indise
ed, romantic historie town that feels like Porto did
30 years ago.
Best time: Spring and autumn. The Douro Valley harvest in September and October is extraordinary.
Access: ao minutes from Porto Airport. 1 hour by road from Porto city centre.

Casa da Calçada Example

Relais & Chateaux · One Michelin Star

We have stayed here, and the dinner we had on the outdoor patio stays with us. The patio sits above the town and the Tâmega River the São Gonçalo Bridge lit below, the monastery beyond it, the hills above the valley darkening as the evening went on. The food was exceptional, the wine list deep in the best of the Douro and Minho valleys, and the setting did what the best restaurant settings do: it made everything on the plate taste better than it might have done anywhere else. We stayed longer than we had planned, for all the right reasons.
Set in a lemon-yellow 16th-century manor on the Largo do Paço the town’s main square, directly above the river Casa da Calçada has been a Relais & Châteaux member since 2004 and was comprehensively renovated in 2025. Thirty rooms and suites with river views, golden baroque interiors, indoor and outdoor pools, and a spa. The Michelin-starred Largo do Paço restaurant serves regional Portuguese cuisine with precision and restraint. The hotel also produces its own Vinho Verde – the only Relais & Châteaux in the world to do so – and organises tours of the finest wine quintas in the Douro and Minho valleys.
Crossing Approved: The outdoor patio dinner with the river view, and the Prestige River View room with the monastery visible from the window. Ask us to arrange both, the combination of that room and that evening is one of the finest in northern Portugal, and we know exactly how to book it.
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