Villa Visconti Borromeo Litta in Lainate rents its rooms for private and corporate events. The connected ground-floor rooms of the eighteenth-century palace hold up to 200 people. The dining room, the Sala del Levati, seats up to 90 guests on its own. The villa stands in the town of Lainate, north-west of Milan, and its secretariat handles requests for event hire.
Seminars and company events
The villa presents its rooms as suited to private and corporate events. For a company, three formats stand out. The connected ground-floor rooms of the palace work for receptions and standing formats of up to 200 people. The Sala del Levati works for a seated dinner of up to 90. The Sala della Musica, on the first floor and recently restored, is described by the villa as an ideal room for concerts and conferences. The site does not give a capacity for the Sala della Musica, so ask for the figure and the available layouts when you send your request.
The villa also runs a public cultural season from May to October, with guided visits and evening events. Check dates with the secretariat before planning a private event during those months.
Rooms and capacities
The ground-floor rooms of the Settecento palace communicate with each other and together hold up to 200 people. The Sala del Levati is the dining room and is connected directly to the Teatro Naturale, a part of the park enclosed by yew trees and hornbeam rows. The Sala di Enea and the Sala delle Assi, also on the ground floor, are used for exhibitions and displays. The Ninfeo and the Italian gardens can be booked for filming and photo shoots.
History and setting
In the second half of the 16th century, Count Pirro I Visconti Borromeo turned a former agricultural storehouse into a villa. He laid out the garden and conceived the Ninfeo, designed by Martino Bassi, with pebble mosaics by Camillo Procaccini and the water features that made the villa known. Giulio Visconti Borromeo Arese built the Quarto nuovo in the early 18th century. It closes the entrance courtyard and holds a ballroom on the main floor.
Marchese Pompeo Litta later had the facades of the Ninfeo redesigned, began reshaping the park with monumental fountains and commissioned Giuseppe Levati to decorate the dining room with stucco and frescoes. Luigi Canonica added an English-style grove in the early 19th century. The municipality bought the villa in 1971 after a long period of neglect, and the restoration of the Ninfeo followed. The villa has been a setting for receptions and festivities since its early years.
Getting there
By car from Milan, take the A8 Milano-Laghi motorway and exit at Lainate-Arese. From Varese or Como, exit at Lainate. Then follow the signs to the town center and to the villa. By public transport, bus line Z617 runs from the Milano Molino Dorino station, at the end of the red MM1 line, to Lainate. The nearest stop is Piazza Matteotti. The nearest railway stations are Rho and Saronno, and each has a bus connection to Lainate.
