Contact
Contact
One email address, and a faster route if you already know what you need. Everything starts in writing.
Lake Como and the United Kingdom
01The office
Where to write
office@comoprivate.com reaches the office. Press enquiries, questions about how we work, membership questions and anything that does not belong anywhere else should go there. It is read by a person, not sorted by a machine.
If you are writing because something on the site looks wrong, the corrections page sets out what to send and what we do with it. If you want to know how the reference material here is written and checked before you rely on it, that is in the editorial policy.
We answer in the order things arrive. If something is going to take longer than a couple of days, usually because it needs an answer from a lawyer, a notary or somebody standing in front of the building in question, we will tell you that rather than leave you wondering.
02Requests
If you have an actual requirement, this is faster
A house for a fortnight in August, a boat for a day, a surveyor next week, somebody to look at a roof before the winter. For a requirement rather than a question, Ask Como Private is the faster route. Write it as you would say it: the dates, the number of people, roughly where on the lake, and the one thing that matters most.
It is quicker than the office inbox because there is nothing to route. One of us reads every request and passes it straight to the desk that can answer it: property, the water, or introductions on land. It is not moved along a chain first. There is no form to complete and no category to choose.
If your question is about membership itself rather than a single request, the membership page sets out what it covers and how to apply.
03Where we are
On the lake, and in the United Kingdom
Como Private works on Lake Como and from the United Kingdom. The work itself happens on the lake: the houses, the boats, the people we introduce, the walking about that the reference pages come out of. A good deal of the correspondence happens in English hours, which for most of our readers is the useful part.
Between the two, a message sent in the morning is usually answered the same working day. In Italian August, less so, and we would rather say that than pretend otherwise.
We do not publish a postal address, because there is nothing useful to send to one. Anything requiring a signature, a deed or an original document goes through the notary or lawyer handling it, which is where it belongs.
04In writing
Why there is no telephone number here
We do not publish a telephone number. That is a decision rather than an oversight: everything we do starts in writing, and a request written down is one we can pass on intact, with the dates and the constraints attached, instead of a half-remembered conversation.
It also spares you the call in which somebody looks something up. We would rather come back to you with two options and a price than keep you on the line while we find out.
Once there is something to discuss, we speak. Members deal directly with whoever is handling their work, by whatever means suits them. It is only the first exchange that is written, and in our experience that is the one that most needs to be.
Sponsorship and advertising
Reaching thepeople here.
We are careful about this. Nothing appears on this site that we would not put in front of a member ourselves, and anything paid for is marked as such: an editorial recommendation is never for sale, which is the whole reason the recommendations are worth anything.
Within that, there is room to talk. Tell us who you are and what you had in mind, and a person will reply.
Or write to us directly
office@comoprivate.comOne of two
We publish a watch title and would like to talk about the Journal
Write it as you would say it. We will ask two or three questions after this, and nothing you do not need to answer.
For people who work on the lake
Are you the bestat what you do here?
The list we introduce from is short and grows slowly: by working with somebody, seeing how a job goes, and only then adding them. If that is the standard you hold yourself to, tell us who you are. We read every one. We check work before we introduce anybody, and no money passes in either direction.
Put yourself forwardAlso worth reading