Turin, Milan and Lakes Maggiore & Como — UNESCO World Heritage Sites
from Renaissance to 21st Century:
Exceptional Private Residences, Historic Sites & Grand Collections
Turin, Milan & Lake Maggiore: September 28th to October 5th: 7 days – 7 nights
Optional: Lake Como: October 5th to 7th: 2 days – 2 nights
5-star hotels
Please join us for our unique discovery of the treasures of Turin, Milan, and Lake Como, led by Professor Frank Dabell, resident and Professor in Rome, a British scholar and art historian, and a former Fellow of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
We will be received by curators of renowned institutions, as well as leading architects, interior designers, landscape architects, and distinguished owners of admirable villas and palaces for private visits and receptions, offering a rare opportunity to savor architecture, décor, art collections and gardens in privileged conditions, and to enjoy meaningful exchanges with our eminent hosts.
The wealth of art and architecture in the Northern Italian regions of Piedmont and Lombardy is dazzling: Ducal palaces, Royal Hunting Lodges, sub-Alpine lakes and their surrounding villas and gardens, still impeccably preserved. The proprietors of the modern age have kept their eyes on both past and future, displaying great contemporary culture and design as well.
Turin – a UNESCO World Heritage Site, distinguished from the rest of Italy by its intellectual air and refined architecture – has an independent character, reflected in its role as the center of the Kingdom. Two recently-renewed institutions, the famed Egyptian Museum, considered the second most important in the world, and the Galleria Sabauda, one of Europe’s finest galleries, are set among the city’s elegant squares and streets. The nearby countryside is famous for its castles, and among these we will visit the Reggia di Venaria, a star among the Ducal and later Royal residences of the Savoy family.
Milan – a UNESCO World Heritage Site, an early capital of the Roman Empire and now Italy’s vibrant fashion and finance capital – offers a huge range of culture and artistic importance: the stately elegance of its historic center, Romanesque churches, the flamboyant Gothic Duomo, the Palazzo di Brera Art Gallery and its remarkable paintings and sculpture collection, Leonardo’s Last Supper, the fascinating Pinacoteca Ambrosiana library and picture gallery with Caravaggio’s radiant Basket of Fruit and Raphael’s grand cartoon for the School of Athens in the Vatican, the 1930’s designs of Piero Portlauppi’s Villa Necchi Campiglio, house-museum – one of the most important in the world. The Fondazione Prada, conceived by the architectural firm OMA—led by Rem Koolhaas.
Lake Como – We conclude our journey with a relaxing stay on the marvelous Lake Como. The astonishing natural beauty of Lake Como – praised by writers, poets, and celebrities – is unrivaled and unspoiled. We will be welcomed by the owners to privately-owned villas and gardens of Lombardy’s sub-Alpine Lake region – impeccably preserved – for private visits and receptions.
