(Italiano) Visitare Smoking on the Lake 2018

ROCCA DI ANGERA

Framed by the Lombard Prealps, the Rocca of Angera dominates the southern end of LagoMaggiore. Amazing is the path inside the solemn historic rooms, embellished with precious frescoes, ancient paintings and original decorations. Inside the Rocca there is the Doll and Toy Museum which retraces the history of the game from the 18th century to the present day. Surrounded by crenellated walls, the Medieval Garden illustrates the peculiarities of the garden in the Middle Ages from a historical and botanical point of view.

EREMO DI SANTA CATERINA DEL SASSO

The Hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso is a monastery built overlooking the eastern shore of Lake Maggiore, in the city of Leggiuno (VA). The history of the Hermitage is shrouded in legend and we must go back to the times when the plague besieged the shores of the lake on both shores, Piedmontese and Lombard, to know its birth. A person, called Alberto Besozzi, in fact, survived a shipwreck with the help of a saint, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and to thank her he decided to retire in prayer on a small rock that rose from the lake by building a small chapel in the rock where also today you can pray. Over the centuries the structure of the building was expanded considerably to accommodate a larger number of worshipers.

VILLA DELLA PORTA BOZZOLO

The villa was built in the second half of the sixteenth century, when the noble notary Giroldino Della Porta bought a large plot of land in Casalzuigno ( VA ) to make a stately home of small size. In 1711 Gian Angelo III Della Porta married Isabella, daughter of Count Giorgio Giulini and ancestor of the well-known Milanese historian Giorgio. Two years later the family hired the architect Antonio Marica Porrani who took charge of expanding the building and enriching the garden that became monumental. After these achievements the Della Porta family went into decline and was forced to sell to Bozzolo in 1877 that remained its owners until 1989 when the last heir decided to donate the entire structure to FAI.

VILLA PANZA

Villa Panza, known throughout the world as a center of contemporary art, has origins dating back to the eighteenth century, when the Marquis Paolo Antonio Menafoglio found on the top of the Biumo hill, in Varese, the ideal place for his country house. Enlarged thanks to subsequent interventions, lastly that of Giuseppe Panza, the villa became a unique setting for its important collection of art of the twentieth century. Over 150 works by American artists, inspired by the themes of light and color, coexist in harmony with ancient environments, Renaissance furnishings and precious collections of African and pre-Columbian art.