Enea Gandola, a Bellagio native, bought land bordering the gardens of Villa Carlotta in 1907 with his wife Maria Orsolini Bolla, intending to build a hotel that could compete with the finest in Europe as well-heeled travelers began flocking to Lake Como. Orsolini Bolla, an unusually assertive businesswoman for her era, insisted on features considered daring extravagances at the time: electric elevators, central heating, and a private bathroom in every guest room, setting a new benchmark for the region.
The Grand Hotel opened July 10, 1910, after three years of construction, but Orsolini Bolla died just twelve years later at 54, leaving Gandola to run the property alone until the Sampietro family bought it in the 1930s. The Italian military briefly converted the hotel into a wartime hospital during the First World War, forcing the family into temporary lodging at Villa Carlotta itself. Greta Garbo immortalized the hotel in the 1932 film Grand Hotel, calling it that happy, sunny place, and the De Santis family, who bought the property in 1973, still owns it today, three generations later.