Sunday Escape - Villa Necchi Campiglio

Does Necchi says anything to you?

Yes, just what you read on your grandmother or your mother sewing machines. If you're curious to know more about this historic family of the bourgeoisie and you are in Milan, you should definitely go to Villa Necchi Campiglio in via Mozart 14.

Here, in a flowering garden, among the beech trees, magnolias, roses and odorous plants is the residence of the sisters Nedda and Gigina Necchi and her husband Angelo Campiglio, an architectural jewel dating back to the 1930s by the famous architect Piero Portaluppi.

Beautiful and well preserved, this building is the result of both those who lived there and those who built it. It reflects the passage of Portaluppi from the dèco lines to the style of rationalism; the restoration by Tommaso Buzzi, the consequent profusion of drapes, curtains and filing of the trident's rigidities; the trips of the Necchi family across Europe, where discovered furnishings and valuable works. Villa Necchi Campiglio combines elegance and modernity, practicality and comfort, high quality materials with the most innovative systems provided by the science of the elevator, dumbwaiter, intercoms, telephones and heated pool - the basement is dedicated to the service, storage and home entertainment facilities (gymnasium, salt room, changing room and swimming pool showers).

In 2001 the residence was donated to the FAI (Italian Environment Fund) by the two Sisters Gigina and Nedda and after restoration and public opening in 2008, it became a museum house with many donations. Among them, the collection of the early twentieth century by the gallerist artist Claudia Gian Ferrari (with works by Sironi, De Chirico, De Pisis, Martini, Morandi ...) and the collection of paintings and decorative arts of the eighteenth century by Alighiero and Emilietta de' Micheli.

And what about the beautiful garden of magnolia, beeches and rates in which zinnie, stars and roses coexist with aromatic plants, horticulture and an orchard?

If then when you are inside Villa Necchi Campiglio will seem to breathe a film atmosphere, it's not just because you're walking into a place that hosted a piece of Italian history of the '900, but also because this wonderful house was the set of Luca Guadagnino's film starring Tilda Swinton I Am Love.