A Sunset Photoshoot at Villa Monastero
A Lake Como Photoshoot · Villa Monastero, Varenna
Leaving the jetty, cruising the shoreline, and the last light in the garden — a real session, start to finish.
Constantin Weddings · Lake Como Photography Journal
There's a version of a Lake Como session that only exists for the first and last twenty minutes of light, and this one happened to have both. Two friends, a wooden boat, and Villa Monastero's jetty in Varenna as the starting point — no ceremony, no schedule to hit, just an evening built around where the sun was going to be.
This is what it actually looked like.
Leaving by boat, not on foot
Most people arrive at Villa Monastero by walking down from the town. We left by water instead, and it changes the photos completely. A boat gives you a moving light source and a background that never repeats itself — the villa's palms and the terracotta rooftops behind you shrink with every second, and for about ninety seconds after pulling away from the dock, the light does something no fixed spot on land can give you.
Underway
Once the boat is moving, the session stops being posed and starts being observed. Some of the best frames from any boat session come from the minute someone forgets the camera is there — hand on the wheel, hair moving, laughing at something that has nothing to do with photography.
The jetty at Villa Monastero — the departure point for the entire session.
Cruising the shoreline
The stretch of water between Villa Monastero and the open lake is lined with garden walls, stone steps down to the water, and glimpses of villas half-hidden behind cypress. It's easy to miss on a normal boat tour — but at walking pace, with the engine cut back, it's one of the quietest, most photogenic corridors of shoreline on this side of the lake.
Cruising past one of Varenna's private garden walls, steps leading straight down to the water.
The garden and the terrace
Villa Monastero's garden runs almost two kilometers along the lakeshore, and it changes character every hundred meters — a statue-lined staircase in one corner, palm-shaded paths in another, and at its center, a panoramic stone terrace that opens straight onto the water. Each spot gives you a different kind of light: the staircase is graphic and symmetrical, the paths are soft and dappled, and the terrace is the one place where the whole lake shows up behind you at once.
The panoramic terrace — the whole lake opens up at once.
The last light
Every session I shoot has a moment near the end where nobody's posing anymore. Here, it was two glasses of champagne on the boat, the villa still lit up behind us, the sun already gone behind the mountains. I always leave room for this — it's rarely the shot anyone plans for, and it's almost always the one that ends up meaning the most.
Before You Book
A Practical Note: Villa Monastero Runs on a Strict Schedule
Villa Monastero is a public garden and museum, not a private venue, and that shapes every session held there.
The Botanical Garden's opening hours change with the season — roughly 10am–5pm in the winter months, stretching to 9:30am–8pm at the height of summer (June through August), with shorter days again in spring and autumn.
A photo shoot has to fall inside those hours, or outside them at an added hourly rate, and the reservation itself has to reach the villa at least 14 days before a private session (20 days for a commercial shoot), with a non-refundable deposit paid at booking.
Once a slot is confirmed, the villa is exact about time — there's no built-in buffer if someone arrives late, and a delay simply eats into the time you've paid for. That's exactly why I ask every client booking a Villa Monastero session two questions before we lock a date: where are you coming from right before the shoot, and where are you going right after. Knowing both lets me build your timeline backward from the villa's own limits, instead of finding out about a conflict on the day itself.
This matters even more when a boat is part of the plan, because the villa's dock has real constraints of its own. It's sized for small boats only, it's free to use, and it can only be booked for arrival and departure tied directly to your session — the boat can't stay moored while you shoot, and it can't drop you off, head out for a lake tour, and come back to the same dock afterward. If you're arriving by ferry or a shared taxi boat rather than a private charter, build in genuine time for boarding and disembarking on both ends, and for Varenna's own traffic: the historic centre runs a one-way system every weekend of the year and daily through summer (June 20 to September 6), which can quietly eat the fifteen minutes you don't have to spare.
None of this is complicated once it's accounted for in advance. It only becomes a problem when it isn't — so tell me your full day, not just your photoshoot hour, and I'll fit the session into it properly. (You can always check the villa's current hours and booking rules directly on Villa Monastero's own site before we lock a date.)
Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
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Yes — Villa Monastero allows private photo shoots in its botanical garden, but booking is mandatory and must be made at least 14 days in advance (20 days for commercial photography). The villa charges an hourly garden fee and does not provide a photographer. That’s why you are here, because toghether we can have a wonderfull photoshoot.
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As of 2026, a non-exclusive session in the botanical garden costs €300 per hour including VAT, covering entry for two people and their photographer. Exclusive use of a specific spot — the Loggia a Lago, the Tempietto Neoclassico, or the Glorietta Terrace — costs €1,000–€1,300 per hour on top of that.
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Hours change by season — roughly 10am to 5pm from November through March, extending to 9:30am–8pm at the height of summer (June through August). A photo shoot has to fall within these hours unless you pay an additional after-hours fee.
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No — they're two separate, neighboring estates in Varenna, often visited together on a combined ticket. Villa Monastero is the larger former monastery with an almost two-kilometer botanical garden; Villa Cipressi next door is a smaller cypress-lined garden and hotel with its own distinct look.
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Yes — full wedding-day coverage at Villa Monastero is something I offer, and the botanical garden and panoramic terrace both work well for portraits and smaller ceremonies. The hourly garden-access booking described above is for photo sessions specifically; hosting the ceremony or reception itself on-site goes through Villa Monastero's own events office as a separate process, worth confirming directly with them once you have a date.
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Yes — it's one of my favorite spots for an engagement session because the garden changes character in such a short walk: the statue staircase, the palm-lined paths, and the panoramic terrace all sit close together. An engagement session here usually takes 1 to 1.5 hours in the garden, enough to move through a few different backdrops without rushing.
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Yes — the session in this post is exactly that: two friends, a boat, and the garden, with no ceremony or engagement attached. It's booked and structured the same way as an engagement session. A Lake Como session to mark a birthday, an anniversary, or simply a trip works the same way.
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Yes — the panoramic terrace and the statue staircase both work well for a single subject. A solo session generally needs less time in the garden than a couple's session, usually around 45 minutes to an hour.
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My fee as the photographer is separate from Villa Monastero's own garden-access fee — the garden fee is paid to the villa directly, and my fee covers the photography, editing, and delivery. Full wedding-day coverage starts at €3,100 for the Essential package. A standalone session such as an engagement, couple's, or solo shoot at Villa Monastero doesn't have a fixed listed price, since it depends on session length and time of year — reach out with your dates and what you have in mind for a direct quote.
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For an engagement, couple's, or solo session, 1 to 1.5 hours in the garden is enough to cover the main spots — the staircase, a garden path, and the panoramic terrace — without rushing between them. For a full wedding-day portrait session, I usually build in closer to 2 hours, since there's more ground to cover between the couple's portraits and any family portraits.
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That's really up to you and whoever you've booked the boat through — I photograph the session, I don't arrange the route. From behind the camera, the light usually decides the best direction on its own: heading back toward Varenna at golden hour, or continuing further along the shoreline if there's time, both give strong backdrops. Wherever the boat is already headed is what I shoot.
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For a session shaped like this one — a departure sequence, garden portraits done separately on land, and a return cruise at last light — 2 to 3 hours on the water is usually comfortable. If sunset is the point of the session, it's worth booking enough time on either side of golden hour that a short delay at the dock or in the garden doesn't cost you the light.
