The summer season offers fabulous scenery with blossoming trees, lush gardens, lunches en plein air, weekends by the lake or sea, and long afternoon walks. Experience tours in places to be discovered and escapes for pleasure or love among villages, enchanted villas that preserve their essence over time and unspoilt villages painted on canvas.

So it’s time to get on board your vintage Porsche convertible or a flame-red vintage Moto Guzzi for the more adventurous! We imagine for him a safari jacket, linen shirt and a panama, for her, a scarf found in one of our old-fashioned paisleys patterned Cabinet de Curiosité to tie around the neck, wrist, the handle of it-bag or between the loops of the jeans. All that’s left to do is to choose the playlist of your heart that will accompany you on your leisurely jaunt out of town. Let your hair blow in the wind and style your hair with the new Marzoline hair croissants freshly from our e-shop in the company of precious kimonos to complete your look and a smartphone in your hands to follow the road and direct you through vintage shots and filming towards the itinerary of the season.

Among the narrow streets and breathtaking views, our gou gou map will let you explore Gourmode’s favourite villas, mansions dating back to around 700′ 800′. A stone’s throw from Milan, located in corners of paradise where nature and art reign supreme, FAI heritage and Italian pride, treasures to be treasured and admired in one day, wandering among shores and colours that smell of history.

Known the world over for its eighteenth-century origins as a centre for contemporary American art, Villa Panza located on the top of the hill of Biumo, in Varese, the country home of Marquis Paolo Antonio Menafoglio, is the magical realm for us healthy carriers of good taste à la mode. It opens its windows onto a magnificent Italian garden and hosts exhibitions of international standing, becoming in the 20th century the venue for over 150 works by American artists, inspired by the themes of light and colour at the behest of Count Giuseppe Panza. Here, ancient environments, Renaissance furnishings and precious collections of African and pre-Columbian art coexist in harmony, creating a perfect dialogue that reflects the intuition and sensitivity of Mr Panza. He identified the clear and almost transcendent light of the place as the guiding principle of his artistic choices. Worthy of note in the arts complex is L’Ala dei Rustici, an astonishing gallery created in the rooms of the former stables and sheds, with site-specific installations by Robert Irwin, James Turrell and Robert Wilson, Dan Flavin’s luminous rooms and Wim Wenders’ moving tribute to Ground Zero. The entire setting is framed by a centuries-old park of 33,000 square metres with an evocative view of the city of Varese. For true connoisseurs of gourmet art, an honourable mention goes to the “Luce” restaurant, located in this area, where the haute cuisine of chef Matteo Pisciotta adds the pleasure to the palate with innovative and refined gastronomic proposals to the beauty of the setting.

Villa Panza – Piazza Litta 1, Varese 

An elegant and romantic residence, guardian of treasure chests and adventures of men of letters and travellers until its last owner, Guido Monzino, Villa del Balbianello is situated on a peninsula jutting out into Lake Como, from which enchanting details of the Lario can be seen. It is an 18th-century wonder chosen by Cardinal Durini as a lakeside corner of delight and literary recreation; It later became the refuge of the mountaineer Monzino, where he kept the memories of an adventurous life that led him, as the first Italian, to the summit of Everest. His daily life and fortunate exploits emerge from maps, travel instruments, books, furniture and precious and curious collections of ancient and primitive art objects: in fact, everything inside the Villa is still set up according to his wishes, such as the memorabilia of his famous mountaineering exploits, kept in the fascinating Expeditions Museum. A spirit that lives on in the amazing garden that the FAI maintains with the same maniacal perfection. A layout that ranges from bold pruning and romantic views, avenues lined with statues, panoramic terraces and abundant flowering, culminating in the 18th-century Loggia that crowns the entire complex, offering a double, aerial panorama. A daydream for us gourmode lovers as a mantra of life.

Villa del Balbianello – Via Guido Monzino 1, Tremezzina (CO)

On the Italian side of Lake Lugano, in Oria, a village on the shores of Como, there is a little old world, a secluded and intimate 19th-century residence, our home of other times (laughter), where furnishings, paintings and objects of exquisite taste evoke, still intact, the atmosphere of Antonio Fogazzaro’s masterpiece, who so loved this villa overlooking a quiet corner of Lake Ceresio. Home for long periods of time to the writer of the same name and a source of inspiration for his novel “Piccolo mondo Antico” (Small Ancient World), Villa Fogazzaro Roi has come down to us intact thanks to Marquis Giuseppe Roi, great-grandson of Antonio, who renovated and tastefully refurnished every room in the mid-twentieth century before leaving the house to the FAI. Inside, furnishings and family heirlooms evoke the nineteenth-century scenarios, the splendid hanging garden, adorned with hedges and flowering shrubs, among which the Olea fragrance recalls the famous phrase of the protagonist of our literature: ” in a corner, the power of gentle things said over the warm impetuous spirit of the poet”. The jewel in the crown is the little terrace with an enchanting view over the Valsolda, the lyrical poetry of the house, as the Maestro defined it.

Villa Fogazzaro Roi – Via Antonio Fogazzaro 14, Oria (CO)

In Tremezzo, back in the 1600s, Marquis Giorgio Clerici commissioned the construction of an imposing but sober building in a natural basin between the lake and the mountains, surrounded by an Italian-style garden with statues, staircases and fountains: Villa Carlotta. In the mid-19th century, Princess Marianne of Nassau donated the property to her daughter, Charlotte, on the occasion of her marriage to George II, Duke of Sachsen-Meiningen. The latter, a keen botanist, did his utmost to develop and enrich the vast landscaped garden, which is now of great historical and environmental value. However, it was with Gian Battista Sommariva, the next owner, that the villa reached the height of its splendour; he wanted to part of the garden to be transformed into a romantic park and the residence to be embellished with masterpieces by artists such as Canova, Thorvaldsen and Hayez, which still make the Villa one of the temples of 19th-century art. Villa Carlotta’s park is famous for the amazing spring flowering of rhododendrons and azaleas in over 150 varieties. An itinerary through ancient specimens of camellias, century-old cedars and sequoias, immense plane trees and exotic plants leads to surprising encounters: the rock garden, the fern valley, the rhododendron forest, the bamboo garden, the museum of agricultural tools and extraordinary views. Some of the flowering plants are exceptionally large and reach a height of 22 metres. A true nature reserve in which to fantasise with the mind, wandering between tea rituals in the garden, reading under umbrellas in tulle dresses and playing boules.

Villa Carlotta – Via Regina 2, Tremezzina (CO)

Just a few kilometres from Milan, in Lainate, is Villa Litta – Borromeo, one of the most delightful Italian villas, capable, five centuries after its construction, of surprising and enchanting visitors with the splendour of its interiors and the grandeur of its garden. The residence, a venue for parties and social receptions in other eras, a meeting place for artists and intellectuals who left their mark on the decorations of the rooms, was built in 1585 by Count Pirro I Visconti Borromeo. It boasts splendid architecture and a marvellous garden, in which is the Palazzo Delle Acque, better known as the Nymphaeum, where the hand of Martino Bassi, Camillo Procaccini and Morazzone can be recognised. The layout of the garden is unique. It was redesigned in the form of an English landscape garden by Luigi Canonica in the 19th century, with an extraordinary variety of plants and trees, among which are exedras full of statues, fountains and Art Nouveau greenhouses. Over the years, the Villa has received the praise of important guests, from Stendhal to Carlo Porta, from Ugo Foscolo to Cesare Cantù, who sing the praises of its extraordinariness that can still be seen in every corner. An appetising tip to note down as a valuable note on your tour concerns the water games, still working today, inside the Nymphaeum. They create an extremely avant-garde and immortally evocative scenic effect and are considered one of the highest examples of this type of water feature in Europe. Absolutely not to be missed!

Villa Litta – Borromeo – Largo Vittorio Veneto 12, Lainate 

And now? Our trunks full of lace, all kinds of clothes, books, record players, poems, secret objects, hats, perfumes and jewellery are ready to be transported to one of the magnificent villas. Which would you say is our favourite in unparalleled gourmet-style à la mode?

Who knows, maybe one day, in our minds, we will organise a memorable dinner in the hall of an eighteenth-century residence, served with every delicacy and satiated by an eternal lake view while sipping a good glass of rosé amidst the flowering rose bushes and rushing water.

In the meantime, we await your curious news about spring escapes and trips out of town, hoping to have delighted your mind with ideas for interesting little experiences.

A bientôt