Not so long ago, Villa Necchi was used as a setting for one of the most boring and pointless films I have ever watched with an equally stupid title: I am Love. The film may have been awful but the villa is fabulous, built by the two Necchi sisters (and the husband of one) whose fortune came from sewing machines (hence the incongruous photograph above) as well as other industries. The couple never had any children and they left the villa to FAI, the Italian equivalent of the National Trust, who restored and opened it to the public and I am lucky enough to be great friends with Ilaria Borletti, the chair of FAI, who very kindly arranged for me to visit when I was recently staying with her in Milan. The interior of the villa (and exterior too) is miraculously intact and made even more interesting by the addition of part of Claudia Gian Ferrari‘s art collection. So, I thought I would forget about food (or belly dancing for that matter) in this post to share with you a few pictures of the house. Unfortunately, I had left my fancy camera in London and had to take them with my iphone!

Read more >