Romantic villa on a private lake

The villa is a two-bedroom neo-classical pavilion, the quieter of two romantic houses that face each other across a private, spring-fed lake of lotuses and water lilies in the wooded hills above Lake Maggiore. Its grand frescoed hall, painted with the colours of a perpetual summer, sits between tall French windows and a warm open fireplace, with sloping-ceilinged bedrooms and a large library tucked beneath the eaves.

The house is the lake's other soul. It leans against a stone stairway that descends gently into the water, among vases and stone spheres that mark its edges, and looks across the lotus pond to its sister pavilion. Dressed in soft pink beneath a neo-classical roofline, it is a house made for long, slow summers.

The heart of the villa is a grand frescoed hall, its walls and ceiling painted with the colours of a perpetual summer: lakes, bridges, palms and flowers that carry the garden indoors. Tall French windows open onto a patio at the water's edge, and a warm fireplace covers the far wall. It is a room for everything at once, morning coffee, aperitivo, and long lunches and dinners laid before the lake, with the cypresses standing guard like gentle sentinels and the ducks and water lilies drifting past.

The two bedrooms sit beneath sloping ceilings, quiet and full of light, dressed in soft shades and warm woods and lined in places with books. One opens through an arched door to the garden; another wears green-and-white toile against pale yellow walls. Each has its own simple, luminous bathroom, with basins set before large windows that frame flowers, garden statues and green tiles the colour of the lawn, and a third bathroom serves the frescoed hall.

Outside, the private lake is the whole world of the garden. Fed by a natural spring, it is crowded with lotus flowers, water lilies and reeds, with camellias and hydrangeas along the banks and a rowing boat waiting to carry guests across to the sister pavilion. Rock-carved pools sit among the trees, and fruit trees, flowers and statues envelop the house like a gentle protection.

For all its seclusion, the property sits just five minutes from Lake Maggiore and around half an hour from Stresa and the Borromean Islands, with Milan Malpensa airport only twenty-eight kilometres away. The house is run with a light, personal touch: breakfast with freshly baked bread and daily housekeeping are included, while fresh juices and a private chef for lunches and dinners can be arranged on request.