Villa Bozzolo, with its Rococo trompe-l’oeil,frescoed vaulted ceilings and walls and Baroque decor, is one of Lombardy’s best-known “pleasure villas”, extravagant country residences built for their owners’ entertainment and refreshment.

The villa is built in the U shape typical of the time with an exquisite ceremonial central courtyard.

In the great hall and the gallery of the piano nobile visitors can admire some of the most representative paintings in the style popular in 18th-century Lombardy, the work of Milanese painters Salvione and Bosso.

The gardens are also justly famous, with four terraces descending the hillside linked by magnificent stone steps.

A feature of the park is its theatre, a vast, slightly sloping lawn delineated by an artificial fishpond.

Today the villa is managed by the FAI, the Italian National Trust, which has furnished the villa with authentic period pieces because the originals have been lost or stolen.

Open: March-November
Opening times: variable
Admission: charge; Children’s recreational activities