Hotel Villa Carona

For nearly one-hundred years, the owners used the house as a retreat from the unbearable summer heat in Milan and the Po plain. In 1850, the villa was divided in two as a result of a marriage, and the large garden was redesigned in its present form. The last inhabitant, a member of the Milanese Scala family, worked as a train engineer all over the world and spent his summer months in Carona. After his death, the villa remained uninhabited for a number of years until it was turned into a hotel in 1951. The building was further renovated in 1969 and 1995, but the historic rooms remained largely untouched and the garden has always been maintained as a part of the hotel complex. The current owners took over the hotel in 2005 and have continued to restore it with much passion and expertise. The hotel has been painted a refreshing shade of yellow and modernized in line with preservation of historic buildings criteria. Today all of the guest rooms have historic furnishings, a number of historic floors have been uncovered and trompe-l'oeil paintings are again visible on the walls and ceilings. The lounge on the main floor with its checkerboard red and black tiles and historic flower motif on the ceiling is an especially successful restoration. The vaulted former cellar, now a dining and breakfast room, has a lovely ambience. Along with the La Sosta restaurant, the spacious garden with areas of different plants on the south side of the hotel is one of the design highlights of the hotel complex. The Villa Carona has been a member of Swiss Historic Hotels since 2006.