La Foleia

La Foleia

Two houses face each other across a private lake in Veruno, fed by a spring of the Ticino and thick with lotus flowers and water lilies: an octagonal villa on one bank, a neoclassical pavilion on the other, its frescoed hall opening through French windows onto a stone stairway that runs into the water. The four thousand square metre garden around them was laid out by Gianfranco Giustina, head gardener of Isola Bella and Isola Madre on Lake Maggiore, and it shows: cypress avenues, bamboo groves, wisteria clouds and a lake edge given over to frogs and herons rather than a maintenance schedule. With only two villas on the property, adults only, a private boat for exploring the lake and a personal chef available for lunches and dinners, this suits couples or a small group of friends who want the whole place run to their own timetable, not a hotel with a lobby and a breakfast buffet. It does not suit anyone travelling with children, anyone who needs step-free access, since the villa is not wheelchair accessible, or anyone hoping to walk into town for dinner, since Veruno's centre is two kilometres off. Condé Nast Traveller and Aria d'Italia have both covered it, and the estate hosts weddings for up to eighty guests, or plated dinners for twenty five on the pavilion's patio. A cleaning tax is payable separately, and meal inclusions vary by rate. What no other villa on this stretch of Lake Maggiore can claim is that garden pedigree: the hand that shaped two of Italy's most photographed island gardens shaped this one too, on a lake most guests will have to themselves. Two villas face each other across a private lake near Lake Maggiore, its garden shaped by the horticulturist behind Isola Bella and Isola Madre. With only two villas, adults only, and a personal chef on call, it suits couples and small groups who want the place to themselves.