“Each step I’ve taken in my life has led me right here, now,” says Paolo De Santis, studying the phrases on a stone slab that marks the brink of the 2 wings of Villa Mondolfo on Lake Como. The villa is residence to 3 generations of the De Santis household, and to stroll throughout the work by the artist Alberto Garutti and into this home is to enter their world. Inside is a big carpet collaged from salvaged offcuts by the Italian conceptual artist Flavio Favelli and a chandelier reconfigured from an array of classic items hangs from the ceiling. “Have a look at how superbly all of the elements are intertwined,” says De Santis, a neatly dressed 70-something.
We wished to share the the expertise of residing with artwork in a house, the place you possibly can admire the work in peace
The assorted properties of the household, who’ve lived in Como for generations, mirror the qualities of Favelli’s artwork as they revive the previous to create one thing new. Paolo, his spouse Antonella and their 43-year-old daughter Valentina are completed hoteliers with a formidable observe file in bringing Como’s heritage buildings again to life. Within the mid-Seventies, Paolo’s father-in-law turned the Grand Lodge Tremezzo on Lake Como, goal constructed for the leisure lessons in 1910, into an elegant, five-star property, and in 2022 the household opened Passalacqua in a 1787 neo-classical villa. It has gone on to be garlanded with awards.
Casabianca by Antonella Corengia. Courtesy Casabianca
Their newest enterprise is Casabianca, a villa designed by Piero Ponci for a rich textile producer in 1930, which appears to be like over Como’s quayside. Within the De Santises’ arms it has change into a stealth resort, with three superbly designed apartment-style suites on the highest flooring, which shall be launched later this yr.
Its three different flooring are already open to paying guests (entrance prices €15) and full of round 50 works from their assortment of post-war Italian artwork in a home setting. “We wished to share the expertise of residing with artwork in a house, the place you possibly can admire the work in peace,” says Antonella De Santis, who celebrated her seventieth birthday right here late final yr with family and friends, the night earlier than it invited the general public in.
All of the artists of the Arte Povera
“We have now virtually all of the artists of Arte Povera in our assortment: Alighiero Boetti, Mario Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Jannis Kounellis, Gilberto Zorio,” Paolo De Santis says. Many have been mates of the couple, and the gathering is deeply private. “Massimo Bartolini made that to mark his fiftieth birthday in 2012,” he says, pointing to a black enamel-on-aluminium disc with 50 notches scored into its perimeter. “We needed to have it.” A site-specific work by Paolini referred to as Habitat (2025) connects Casabianca and Villa Mondolfo: 4 plaster busts positioned within the centre of Casabianca’s ethereal entrance corridor are surrounded by framed pictures of the household’s lakeside residence. A bronze bonsai, referred to as Bushes & Roots (2011), by the 2003 Venice Biennale Golden Lion winner Su-Mei Tse, is planted beside the staircase.
From left: Valentina, Paolo and Antonella De Santis. Courtesy Casabianca
The couple have been first inspired to accumulate artwork by their late pal and fellow Como resident, the mid-century designer Ico Parisi and his spouse Luisa. “We met them once we’d simply obtained married and have been residing in a smaller home within the hills,” Paolo De Santis says. “We purchased our first piece of artwork of their atelier: La Ruota (the wheel). Ico and Luisa have been those who opened our eyes to how we might make our residence look lovely.” They later returned the favour, commissioning Parisi to design the Happiness Fountain mural within the backyard on the Grand Lodge Tremezzo—a vibrant girl’s face in brilliantly colored glass mosaic.
Artwork meets design
All through Casabianca’s beneficiant rooms, artwork meets design, with carpets by Gio Ponti and tables and chairs by Paolo Buffa. Largely from 1930 onwards and the peak of fine Italian style, a lot of the furnishings has been sourced on the biannual classic honest in Parma, although the occasional copy has been slipped in to keep up the interval feeling, together with Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural Taliesin Flooring Lamps, designed in 1933 and composed of stacked picket bins. “We’d like guests to benefit from the artwork in a slower method, such as you may at residence,” Paolo De Santis explains. “They’re invited to take a e-book off the shelf and sit for some time. I don’t need folks to really feel like they’re in a museum, however in a phenomenal home the place they will linger. Magnificence helps us reside effectively and likewise helps us see the world in a barely much less aggressive method.”
Alfredo Jaar’s 2018 neon signal, Si ballava e ancora si sperava. Courtesy Casabianca
Guests are invited to take a e-book off the cabinets and sit for some time. I don’t need it to really feel like a museum
Whereas the couple declare that there aren’t any curators at Casabianca, they’re inadvertently presenting their first present and demonstrating the standard of a set that retains rising in scale and variety. {A photograph} by Marina Abramović (Holding Vacancy, 2012) with the artist wearing black, eyes closed, is a part of an vital sequence referred to as With Eyes Closed I see Happiness. A major sculpture by Anselm Kiefer, Paete (2000)—wild, wiry hair exploding from a plaster type—occupies an upstairs room. Alfredo Jaar’s neon signal from 2018—Si ballava e ancora si sperava, or “nonetheless dancing, nonetheless hoping—shines in good blue.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Flooring Lamp (1933); furnishings by Paolo Buffa and carpets by Gio Ponti characteristic all through Casabianca. Courtesy Casabianca
For these looking for extra earthly pleasures, these consultants in hospitality have additionally shaped a partnership with the historic Milanese patisserie, Cova. (The primary one opened in 1817; LVMH acquired a serious stake in 2013.) Within the wood-and mirror-panelled restaurant and bar, pancakes, tramezzini and omelettes are on provide all day, together with beautiful desserts and occasional. And there may be, fairly actually, no higher place in Como to take pleasure in an early night Negroni. This can be a totally different form of white home, devoted to pleasure and artwork.
Extra info at casabiancacomo.com
