Hotel Villa Malpensa

A few lines are not enough to frame the enchantment of Villa Malpensa, an ancient Villa dating back to the early 1900s, formerly the sumptuous residence of Count CAPRONI, located in a large private garden in the characteristic medieval village of Vizzola Ticino, in the heart of the Ticino natural park. .
The only hotel just 800 meters from the Intercontinental Airport of Milan MALPENSA TERMINAL 1 recommended for those who want to reach it in a few minutes. Free shuttle is available. The new Rho-Pero Exhibition Center is only 15 minutes away!

Thanks to its location, the hotel is strategically located off the air routes and ensures its customers a peaceful stay, surrounded by greenery and away from noise pollution. Surrounded by an enchanting park that acts as a frame, you can spend days or small moments of relaxation. Stopping on benches placed in particular corners or in the green gazebo which during the day offers a splendid oasis of shade, walking among the green of the garden, the sweet sounds of nature, the chirping of birds surrounded by the light that filters through the centuries-old trees, evokes unforgettable sensations.

It all began way back in 1908, when the then twenty-two year old Gianni Caproni Conte di Tailedo (1886 – 1957), after graduating in Civil Engineering in Munich, Aeronautical Engineering in Liège and Aeronautical Engineering in Paris, moved to Arco di Trento. Here he began his adventure as an airplane designer and builder. Together with his brother Federico and other trusted collaborators, they began the construction of a biplane aircraft in a warehouse equipped as a workshop. The impossibility of finding a land suitable for the testing needs of the aircraft, forced Gianni caproni to move to Cascina Malpensa, (where the airport now stands) an expanse of moorland (heather countryside, commonly called heather, a typical flower of the area) in the near Gallarate (VA), where the Military Engineers carried out the exercises that allowed them to carry out their tests. Thus began the history of Italian military aviation. In 1911 he moved to Vizzola Ticino, a neighboring municipality, where he built a small factory and pursued an important aeronautics school. Here, Federico Caproni, Gianni’s brother, started an impressive reclamation work which consisted in the transformation of part of the moor into a cultivable area. The territory, with a predominantly pebbly subsoil and a very thin layer of arable land, did not produce all that was hoped for. Once the reclamation started, Federico Caproni set up a modern farm with a variety of crops and livestock breeding, including buffaloes, already present in the area in the Lombard period, and gave birth to a dense agricultural colony of about 20 hectares. At that time, he was facilitated by the low cost of transport and by obtaining at advantageous conditions an enormous amount of recycled material (beams, iron, tiles, windows, doors, etc.) coming from the demolitions that took place in those years from the many public buildings, carried out to modernize the appearance of Milan, to the construction of this village in a pseudo-medieval style both for their family and for the workers and farmers who worked for them. Among the most important public buildings demolished we mention the old central station of Milan, whose iron and cast iron infrastructures were transported from Milan to Vizzola Ticino for the construction of this building, which should have been the headquarters of the offices of the Industria Costruzioni Aeroplani and the Caproni reclamation and which in the years to come partly became a cereal warehouse and kindergarten for the children of the small town. After the end of the Second World War, the Caproni industrial empire crumbled for fiscal reasons and this building (as well as the whole village) experienced years of decay until it was partly sold to private individuals.

The BONINI family, the new owner of this property since 1985, after years of meticulous restorations, brings this Art Nouveau villa of 1920 back to its ancient and original splendor with the adjoining church-oratory of 1774. These infrastructures embellish, today, a modern hotel four stars, the HOTEL VILLA MALPENSA. Arriving from the airport, take the road that leads to Vizzola Ticino and, as if by magic, you are immersed in the greenery of the Ticino Park. At the end of the road you can already see the Hotel. From the main entrance to the park, which frames it, you are presented with this sumptuous “palace” of a soft ivory yellow color on three floors with a splendid, decidedly refined and elegant shape that will amaze you. One is immediately struck by the imposing portico of the entrance where the splendid wrought iron canopy stands out, embellished with sumptuous cast iron columns that leads us to the entrance of the hotel, in the atrium of the Hall, where we find the Reception with a particular desk circular embellished with ancient pink marble columns and the Bar with the main wall decorated in classic style and with large windows, whose wrought iron inserts were part, like the entrance canopy, of the Royal pavilion of the old Milan Central station. On the left after the Hall is the Restaurant: a refined setting where you can enjoy the flavors of our Italian and international cuisine accompanied by the excellent wine from our fine list. In front of the atrium we find the “Salone degli Affreschi”, which reproduces in the original the “royal room” former waiting room of the Royals of Italy in the old central station of Milan, embellished with stuccoes, pilasters and high-reliefs with gold gilding zecchino and with the beautifully frescoed vault in 1933 by the artist GB JEMOLI which re-proposes some moments of the rural and political life of the community of Vizzola Ticino. The particular floor, doors and apliques are original of the period. In the Hall we can find recent and original paintings made with the “trompe l’oeil” technique and particular decorations reminiscent of the Art Nouveau style. On almost all floors of the hotel located in various walls we can find portions of frescoes restored with the tear-off technique and framed, also part of the precious recovery of important buildings in Milan. The rooms are located on 3 floors and are furnished with taste and refinement and have the most modern comforts, some overlook the Ticino Park and the characteristic village of Vizzola Ticino and from others, you can see the snow-capped peak of Monte Rosa. The lower floor is completely dedicated to meeting rooms. The exterior of the Villa has been re-frescoed in the original color of the time and the same structure of the beautiful centuries-old park has been maintained with the original gazebo attached. The frontispiece of the wrought iron shelter shows a rampant goat, the coat of arms of the Caproni family to which the great poet and pilot Gabriele d’Annunzio dedicated the motto “Without clashing diricco” for the epic exploits of Caproni airplanes.

Although some descendants of the Caproni family still live in Vizzola Ticino, most of the village is uninhabited and unfortunately in a serious state of architectural decay. Fortunately, since it is a historic center despite the proximity of the ultra-modern Milan Malpensa airport, it will only be possible to carry out renovations respecting the style of the environment and the tradition that the history of the characteristic village of Vizzola Ticino has represented and will continue to represent in the future.