Dear friends welcome to myownitaly.com to discover Italy with my personal touch!
Our travel today is to lake Como, reaching Varenna to visit a special atchitectural gem and a gorgeus botanic garden: Villa Monastero.
Starting from Lecco following the north in direction Colico, you can easily arrive to destination and find the comfortable parking close to Villa Monastero, which is truly in front of the lake.
Villa Monastero takes its name from the Cistercian monastery founded at the end of the twelfth century in Varenna and that at the beginning of the seventeenth century was restored by the italian family Mornico (who called it "Villa Leliana").
It was later modified and decorated between 1897 and 1909 by its last owner, the rich German businessman Walter Kees.
Nel 1936 Villa Monastero was donated to the government by the family De Marchi, who had bought it in 1925.
Four years later, the charming garden was opened to the public and in 1953 was created to convention center.
Villa Monastero has a botanic garden of great value and interest, while the interior is a house museum and a conference center.
The House Museum consists of 14 rooms completely furnished. All of them, from the Pool Hall to the Music Hall, from the Mornico Parlour to the Main Room, offer visitors the opportunities to go back to the past through the various styles, the precious materials and the luxurious decorations.
In Villa Monastero there is an extensive collection of scientific instruments of optics, electronics and mechanics belonged to Giovanni Polvani (1892-1970), President of the Italian Society of Physics and the National Research Council.
Villa Monastero is surrounded by a Garden with several rare botanic species.
The Garden, being set up in terraces, has been structured in different patterns over the years yet maintaining a main recurring theme.
The mild climate, peculiar to the lake, allows numerous botanic species from all over the world to grow.
In the garden, which welcomes visitors with rows of cypresses, cedars of Lebanon and evergreen hedges, are placed statues, small temples and fountains, all immersed in a variety of colors and scents of flowers and shrubs that adorn the beautiful park.
In the end, Villa Monastero is a true jewel of great value to admire in any time.
Leisure with me: this is my tourism!