Oct 9, 2025
By Harry Mottram: The shadow of Mussolini still haunts the beautiful Villa Necchi Campiglio and its grounds. Built in the 1930s it was home to a family who made a fortune from sewing machines. It was the highlight of our visit to Milan due to its gardens and house that had kept all the possessions of the three sisters who lived in the home until their deaths. (The main image is of one of the sisters in her younger days who had a touch of Linda’s Italian looks about her).
The family must have had many friends as there were so many reception rooms, bedrooms with the poshest ensuite bathrooms I’ve seen and décor to match. During the war Mussolini was head of a short lived northern republic as the Allies advanced – and he made the house his HQ. After he left and was killed by partisans it was taken over by the British army until it was returned to the family and its three remaining aged sisters. After their deaths it was given to the Italian Touring Society – a sort of National Trust who have looked after it since. The one thing they didn’t look after was the chocolates for sale in the gift shop. Linda bought some and discovered later to her horror they were covered in mould. She contacted the shop and they apologised and said they would remove all the stock as a result and refunded her fifteen euros – a shockingly high price for mouldy chocolates.
Grumps
A visit to the Museum of Modern Art with its grumpy security officers who stopped us in each room of the 18th century mansion to demand to see our tickets was another gem – and devoid of tourists with just a handful of visitors like us. The main attractions included the original inlaid wood floors and painted ceilings of the grand house with its chandeliers and marble staircase.
The museum’s core collection is mainly from the 19thcentury and includes some huge paintings – the most spectacular one being of workers on a march demanding improved wages and living conditions by Giuseppe Pellizza. A group of people were learning about the painting by a guide and I felt like shouting ‘up the workers’ but catching the eye of one of security officers thought better of it. The museum contains breathtakingly beautiful sculptures where you wonder at the skills to bring feet, hands, material and naked bodies t life out of marble.
My favourite paintings came under title of ‘all human life here’ with ones of the inmates of the workhouse, domestic scenes and people hard at work. Images in contrast to the luxurious lives of the residents of Count Ludovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso’s vast mansion. We thought about a cuppa in the café at the entrance but our request for a Campari for me and an Earl Grey tea for Linda were given short shrift by the very snooty manager who insisted we choose from the cocktail menu at fifteen euros a drink. We declined and decided to make our own back at the flat.
No queues
Just a few yards from the crowds of tourists queueing up to visit Milan’s cathedral – Duomo – is an equally beautiful place of worship – sans crowds. And it is free to enter. The richly decorated and elegant Chiesa di Santa Maria is a 15th century parish church just off Via Torino with an ornate gilded interior. To stroll around the darkened interior and view the chapels and wall paintings or to sit in the pews is the antidote to the hustle and bustle outside. Like the church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro a few minutes walk away or Tempio di San Sebastiano the churches of Milan are off the tourist Instagram must visit map but are every bit as beautiful as the cathedral with its long queues of tourists and their selfie sticks.
Saints and selfies
The Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie is a massive church and Dominican convent famous for housing the mural of The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, which is in the refectory. Since the painting is on the tourist trail it was no surprise when we visited the queues snaked out of the door and across the piazza outside. Instead, we took in the vast interior of the church which holds an equally important shrine – that of for the priest Giuseppe Girotti who died in the Dacchau concentration camp in 1945. He had helped to hide Jews in Italy and to find documents for them to save them from the Nazis who then controlled Milan and northern Italy. He was betrayed and despite efforts to save him from deportation his fate was sealed. He was beatified in 2014.
Watching visitors to the church was something of a spectator sport as we sat in the pews. A party of school children came ambling in – stopping now and then to take selfies before looking bored as their teachers spoke about the history of the church. Couples would stop in front of the altar and then as though synchronised both take an identical photo of the church. That done and on they went – and we were just the same.
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