10 unmissable Italian villas open to the public

The spectacular Venetian villa, pioneering in the architectural culture of the time for having introduced the double-order pronaos motif (then widely successful in the centuries to come), after years of restoration in 2025 finally reopened its doors to the public for an immersion into bright spaces and frescoes.

The neo-Baroque villa, nestled in the Parma countryside and surrounded by a majestic Romantic park populated by exotic plant species and peacocks, houses among its neoclassical and Empire-era furnishings the Luigi Magnani collection with works from Monet to Cézanne, Dürer De Chirico, as well as the most significant collection of Giorgio Morandi. It is constantly the venue for prestigious temporary exhibitions.

The 18th-century villa on the top of the Biumo hill, commissioned by Marquis Menafoglio as his country house, was extended in the early 19th century by Luigi Canonica and renovated by Piero Portaluppi in the 1930s. In the 1950s, Count Panza, the new owner, began to develop his 20th-century art collection, which now counts more than 200 works from Europe to the United States, African and pre-Columbian art, and environmental and site-specific art installations in dialogue with the historical furniture. Today, the villa hosts exhibitions and events of international appeal.

The villino, one of the most elegant examples of Roman Art Nouveau, was the home-studio of Palermo sculptor Ettore Ximenes (1855-1926); once sold by his heirs and restored, it now houses a university guesthouse that can be visited by appointment. The building, which still retains its original furnishings, features echoes of Palermo's Norman architecture and the Viennese secession, visible in the rich marble decorations and extensive use of majolica.

Villa Bernasconi, one of the rare examples of Art Nouveau architecture on Lake Como and the only villa in Cernobbio open to the public, was built as a “fashionable house” for the textile engineer-entrepreneur Davide Bernasconi within the so-called “silk citadel” of Cernobbio, between the administrative offices of the Tessiture Bernasconi, the houses for the workers and managers and the kindergarten. The reference to the owner's entrepreneurial activity can be seen in the Villa's exterior decorations, which depict the life cycle of the silkworm and the fruits of the mulberry tree (a rare iconography in the Art Nouveau panorama). After a long renovation, the villa was definitively reopened to the public in 2017 thanks to the “Liberty Tutti” project as a museum.

The house for Palermo's wealthy Florio family is considered one of the most brilliant examples of Art Nouveau in Italy and Europe. The landlord's cosmopolitan soul can be seen in the multiplicity of expressive languages: from the curved Baroque surfaces to the typically Nordic trusses, to the cylindrical turrets reminiscent of French castles, Romanesque columns and Renaissance embossments. Once the family's golden age was over, the villa fell into disuse until an arson fire in 1962 damaged its interior, only to be restored as a representative office of the Region of Sicily. It has recently reopened its doors to the public for visits.

Villa Borsani was designed as the representative house of Gaetano Borsani, a learned entrepreneur and founder, in 1923, of Abv (Arredamenti Borsani Varedo), which at that time was moving to a new production site adjacent to the house. The rationalist vocabulary was inspired by the works of Muzio, De Finetti and Portaluppi, and indirectly by the great authors of Central European architecture of the early 20th century, including Loos, with his revolutionary idea of the Raumplan (a design concept based on the plan-volume interlocking of rooms). A balance of new styles and decorative tradition characterises the building, with its austere exterior and patinated interior. Each room, original and in a perfect state of preservation, is filled with movable furniture, designed by Borsani or other company collaborators, valuable fixed furnishings and accessory compartments often hidden in the walls. Since Borsani death in 1985, the house has remained largely unchanged. It is not always open to the public, but occasional guided tours are organised by the Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FaI) or Alcova, on the occasion of Milan Design Week.

An integral part of the Zegna Foundation, Casa Zegna is the historical archive and cultural hub of the entire Zegna Group. Inaugurated in 2007 in the 1930s building that was once the family home, next to the Lanificio Ermenegildo Zegna wool mill, the building hosts exhibitions, events and workshops for families: a journey through the history of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group since 1910, among paper documents, fabric samples, thousands of advertising objects, films and architectural drawings.

The villa was designed as a home for the artist Claudio Caffetto, who soon merged its original function with that of an exhibition venue, to provide a hub for artistic and cultural debate. The building intertwines with the morphology of the hill, shaped by terracing and hanging gardens. The design rejects the traditional subdivision of functional areas and rather captures the potential of movement and spatial hybridisation, through an explosion of paths, ramps, overhangs, louvers, transparencies, suspended bridges and canopies. An equally hybrid approach is revealed in the use of materials: from reinforced concrete in the load-bearing structure and external surfaces, to the precious finishes in slate, marble and wood. Today the house is a venue for exhibitions and events.

The historic complex includes a villa dating back to the 15th century and a vast park. Since the second half of the twentieth century, the estate has been home to the Gori collection of site-specific contemporary artworks: outdoor installations placed among the nineteenth-century park, olive fields and in the farm's interiors and some farmhouses, rrom Richard Serra to Mimmo Paladino, from Anselm Kiefer to Michelangelo Pistoletto. Today, the Celle farm is one of the most important Land Art hubs in Italy.