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Adventure Travel

Visit Villa Motta in Orta San Giulio

WebEditor 2 years ago 2 min read

Have you ever been in Orta San Giulio? Here there is Villa Motta. Villa Motta is located on the tip of the Orta San Giulio peninsula and overlooks the lake, it can be reached on foot via a pleasant panoramic walk of about 300 meters.

HISTORY

Completed in the second half of the nineteenth century at the behest of the noble Gallini family from Novara, it was later put up for sale by the widow Maria Massa Gallini and bought by one of the founders of the Italian electricity industry: that Giacinto Motta who in 1922 was appointed president of Edison company. He will then bring together all the Italian electricity companies, transforming the company into the Edison Group. Over the years G. Motta, on a project by the architect Mazzuccottelli, put his hand to the building several times, enlarging and enriching it until it reached its current proportions.

With the approach of the Second World War, the villa hosted various political meetings: we remember the “secret” one of 1939, between Marshal Caviglia and exponents of Italian industry, which sanctioned the separation between industry and fascism. During the years of the partisan resistance, the villa was used as a refuge for refugees headed to Switzerland (including the journalist Indro Montanelli). In the last decade of the twentieth century a hereditary succession meant that Gianmario Motta, grandson of Giacinto, found himself the sole owner of the Villa. Gianmario immediately began major restoration and renovation of the systems, up to the division of the villa into four apartments corresponding to the various floors.

THE PATHS FROM VILLA MOTTA TO THE GARDEN

From the Villa it is possible to continue climbing up to the Sacro Monte di Orta, defined by Nietzsche as “one of the most evocative places in the world”. The garden of Villa Motta was completed in 1880 but was constantly enlarged and embellished with rare and precious essences, grouped in groves (camellias and rhododendrons) and hedges (azaleas and roses). Conifers are also represented, including the beautiful Caucasian firs.

Thanks to the variety of species collected, the blooms follow one another seamlessly throughout the year: starting with rhododendrons, azaleas, spring camellias and then moving on to roses (during the period from May to October), osmanthus ( September-October) and finally to winter camellias. They are notable for their peculiar importance: a twenty meter long Araucaria Araucana, a hybrid of arboreal rhododendron about ten meters high, the collection of camellias, and, above all, for over fifty years, the hedges of hundreds of pink azaleas that every year they bloom around May 10th SR 229 from the lake to Gozzano, turn towards Miasino and a few hundred meters away you will find the parking. In 15 minutes, with a walk through country paths, you reach the summit.