Graceful Villa Melzi on Lake Como, Italy

Larger than life: Art that inspires us through the ages

Villa Melzi has been declared a National Monument. The exterior double staircase rises up to the main floor and frames three arched doors that provide passage to the villa’s lower floor. The rusticated base and large textured brick-like forms establish a relationship with the ground, while providing contrast and hence highlighting the soft white walls. This treatment extends vertically along the corners, known as coins. The coins form a frame to the subdued façades comprised of a soft repetition of rectangular windows. The roof is adorned with chimney spires. MT–Afb/Giardini di Villa Melzi

Villa Melzi d’Eril is elegantly placed on the waterfront of Lake Como amid a rare garden,  just 31 miles from Milan in Lombardy, Northern Italy.

In the early 19th century, Francesco Melzi d’Eril, vice president of the Italian Republic founded by Napoleon, envisaged the villa as a summer retreat. It is accompanied by a family chapel, an orangerie that served as a greenhouse, and a lakeside pavilion. These were set in a wondrous garden with rare exotic plants, sculptures, and an Asian haven, evoking memory and imagination of far away lands.