Please join us for our unique discovery of the treasures of Turin, Milan, and Lake Como, led by a British scholar and art historian, resident and Professor in Rome, 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 astounding villas and palaces for private visits and receptions, offering a rare opportunity to savor architecture, décor, art collections and gardens in the most 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 to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo, and the Galleria Sabauda, one of Europe’s finest galleries, are set among the city’s elegant squares and streets. The imposing Palazzo Madama, named after Christine, daughter of Henri IV of France and Regent of Piedmont, is important for its wide-ranging display of fine and decorative art. The Fondazione Accorsi Ometto houses an admirable collection of furniture. 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 fabulous 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—the transformation of a distillery, expands the repertoire of spatial typologies housing permanent and temporary Contemporary art exhibits.

Nota: Participants who register before January 20th, will have the possibility to reserve seats for the Opera performance “L’Amore dei Tre Re” at the Teatro alla Scala Milan on May 20th.

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 to privately-owned villas and gardens of Lombardy’s sub-Alpine Lake region – impeccably preserved by their proprietors – for privileged private visits and receptions.