History
The historic building on Lake Porlezza was bequeathed to FAI by the great grandson of celebrated Italian novelist Antonio Fogazzaro, Giuseppe Roi, in 2009.
The Vicenza-born novelist spent long periods of his life in the villa, and its refined interiors remain highly evocative of the descriptions in his 1896 book entitled The Little World of the Past. A literary house, then, which for Fogazzaro served as a quiet, se- cluded refuge, facing out over the lake and immersed in the greenery of the Valsolda. The building is constructed on a pre-existing structure dating back to the 16th century, and to this day features the original, 400-year-old garden on three terraces – one of which is suspended – awash with sweet osmanthus, as creeping fig winds its way round the walls and balustrades, mirroring the place described by the author.
''The little hanging garden was transformed into the image and likeness of Franco. A sweet osmanthus in the corner spoke of the power of gentle things on the warm, impetuous spirit of the poet; over in another corner, a little cypress, which Luisa did not much like, encapsulated his religious nature; a small fretwork parapet, between the cypress and the osmanthus, with two lines of tufa at the top, containing a delightful population of verbena, petunia and portulaca, hinted at the singular ingenuity of the artificer; the numerous roses scattered everywhere expressed his affection for classical beauty; the creeping fig that covered the walls on the lakeside, the two orange trees in the middle of the two terraces and a vigorous, lucid carob revealed a temperament that was highly sensitive to the cold, a creativity always facing southwards, unmoved by the charms of the north.'' (A. Fogazzaro, The Little World of the Past).
In 1941 the villa's garden and reception room served as the set for the film Old-Fashioned World, directed by Mario Soldati, which was closely based on Fogazzaro's successful novel.
