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© Filippo Bamberghi
© Filippo Bamberghi

LA FOLEIA

An Idyllic Folly

Words by Livia Ferrè

Water lilies on the surface of the water, lotus flowers suspended between the sky and the lake.

Two pink Neo-classical houses, looking onto the reflecting surface of an artificial lakelet, just a stone’s throw from Lake Maggiore in Northern Italy. The lake was discovered by a water diviner who was able to reconcile the dense oak wood – that once upon a time had surrounded the estate – with the creation of the evocative private four-thousand square metre area of water and thus enable it to be directly nourished by the natural springs of the River Ticino.

The term Foleia, means madness in Latin and it is, truly-speaking, a story of real madness when we consider this particular place. A story of love, of courage, of art and of perseverance.

A young couple – a British woman Gemma Richards and her partner, Niccolò Rignano – is looking after it, a place where time is hanging in the air, lying somewhere between the past and the present.

© Filippo Bamberghi

An arbour of wisteria, red pines hailing from Japan, climbing hydrangeas. Each and every plant to be found here in this heaven on earth is not here by chance itself. The gardener who has managed and who overlooks – to this very day – this particular dream-filled habitat is Gianfranco Giustina, the chief gardener since 1979 of the Borromean Islands, in Lake Maggiore. He has created one of the most extraordinary gardens in Italy.

In the 1990’s, the property belonged to a couple of architects, Caretti and Turner, who created and brought to a certain fruition the houses and the garden. After their time there, a Milanese couple – she a botanist and he a philosopher – made the Foleia their home for twenty years. The couple had found a garden of great potential although quite simple and not so varied in its layout. They were the ones responsible for having taken on signor Giustina to revolutionise the garden and turn it into something that has become one of its kind.

 

© Filippo Bamberghi

Afterwards, the property came into the hands and gentle care of Gemma and Niccolò, who met each other just upon graduating – Niccolò in Economics and Gemma in Psychology. Both had felt the urge to travel, to gain experience of the hospitality and tourism world as well, too, as nurturing entrepreneurial dreams. After a sequence of experiences in Italy and a year working as chefs in Australia, travelling on foot, by bicycle and by train throughout south-eastern Asia over a period of three months, Gemma and Niccolò decided to return to Milan in order to bring home all of the experience that they had gathered. So, where did they begin upon their return? They started off by renovating, furnishing and managing three apartments with from one to two bedrooms, and all three of them possessing different sorts of features and innate appeal. During this period, they created a five-hundred square-metre garden just outside of Milan since they both missed their own personal relationships with nature and they had both always intended to set up a concept of farm-to-table, to share the benefits – both mental as well as real – with their family and friends.

After having lived for a couple of years at the Foleia, Gemma and Niccolò were able to perceive the strength of its soul and they have truly celebrated it! Theirs is the merit to have rediscovered the tromps l’oeil that had been long forgotten and concealed. Theirs, too, was the enjoyment reaped when they were able to choose every single piece of furniture and furnishings with the utmost detail – and never banal – that they found in antique markets. Theirs, too, was the dedication that they spent on their exceptional maintenance of the gardens and the lake. Today, this lake quivers with life. There are Mandarin ducks, frogs, (local as well as visiting) mallards that make the lake their home. A rowing boat is at the disposal of visitors who seek to immerse completely themselves in such a bucolic atmosphere, worthy of an Impressionist painting.

© Filippo Bamberghi

Lying just above the lake, there are two small, heated pools, a sauna and a massage area so that the guests are treated in a particularly special way. Such special treatment for the guests is further proven with the chef who the young couple puts at the disposal of the guests in order to reflect their own predilection for local products of the highest quality and the most zero kilometre possible. The menu is created according to the seasons and offers a whole host of genuine and excellent dishes from the vast repertoire of Italian cuisine, influenced by both the area and tending towards local gastronomic traditions.

Still on the culinary theme, Gemma and Niccolò have a surprise in store for all of us. They have created a botanic restaurant with avocado trees and bougainvillaea, in the centre of Milan with a suite to stay in overnight….Stay tuned!

There are two Neo-Classical houses on the property, one in front of the other, separated only by the lake. They are the octagonal house and the pavilion. Both of them contain two suites, with a drawing room, a kitchen and a private bathroom. A highly evocative orangerie, whose walls have been painted with climbing ivy leaves by the gentle and able hands of the Pictalab studio in Milan, completes the property, along with a large greenhouse that is host to indoor events. The drawing room in the octagonal house is an enthralment of white with stucco work, Neo-Classical busts and vases, with a comfy armchair overlooking the lake. The main saloon of the pavilion is, on the other hand, a triumph of tromp l’oeil enriched with botanical motifs and animals peeping out at the most unexpected of moments. (A little mouse draws the curtains above the frame of a door, and a pelican flies softly around a ceiling decorated with the palest of clouds). The tromp l’oeil had originally been realised by the first owners, the Carretti-Turner couple of architects, and afterwards it had been covered by the subsequent owners who had preferred an enormous library in its place. It once again came to light, however, with Gemma and Niccolò who decided to have it restored by Pictalab, once again.

© Filippo Bamberghi

The Foleia also offers two excursions for its guests that are truly unique. Both of them is equipped with a gourmet picnic hamper and include a day-trip in a Land Rover 110 Vintage, restored down to the very last detail, to Mount Mottarone, or through the woods of Lake Maggiore and over to the shores of Lake Orta, or to the pebbly riverbed of the River Ticino and a trip in a motorboat (extremely elegant and not requiring a boat licence) to explore in peace and quiet Lake Maggiore in all its entirety, alone or accompanied by a guide, right up to the isles on the lake, such as Isola Bella and other such marvels in this beautiful land of lakes.

You’ll have the opportunity to sink into a magic sensation of pure folly!

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