Giacomo Montegazza

Giacomo and Stefania Montegazza welcome guests arriving by boat at their villa, La Casinella, on Lake Como, 1983.

Villa La Cassinella was the summer love of several generations of the same fami­ly of Como architects, the Montegazzas, a-listers. This euphemistically termed ’home’ has been one of Como’s prized shoreline spectacles for over a century, neighboring exclusively with the glorious Villa del Balbianello; a contender for the next seven wonders, on Como’s most private promontory, Lenno.

In 1926 The Texan heiress Funny Hart commissioned the engineer Carlo Montegazza to restructure Villa Rosa. The engineer’s project involved a reconstruction of the entire existing building and the villa then became the property of the Montegazza family.

The development work would then continue in 1965 with the engineer’s son, Giaco­mo Montegazza, who worked on re-equipping the interior to modern needs, but above all on the care of the garden. The aim of the engineers was to combine sce­nic aspects with natural ones, a goal achieved given the fame of the villa and the fact it is now considered one of the most fascinating and romantic on Lake Como.

Slim Aarons