There are places that don’t need to introduce themselves. CASABIANCA is one of them.
CASABIANCA is a passion project of Paolo and Antonella De Santis — the family behind Grand Hotel Tremezzo and Passalacqua, named the best hotel in the world in 2023 — and from the moment you arrive, you feel how deeply personal it is. This is not another entry in their hospitality portfolio. It is their home, and they have opened it to the world.
Set right on Lake Como, the villa reveals itself quietly. There are no suggested routes, no sense of where to begin or end. You wander. You pause. You sit with something for a while. Art appears naturally beside a sofa, along the stairs, framed by windows that open onto the water. Everything feels exactly where it belongs.
The collection has a strong focus on Italian contemporary work, and in particular Arte Povera, the radical movement rooted in the 1960s and 70s that asked what art could really be made of. Works by Vedova, Kiefer, Pistoletto, Paolini and others are simply there, living alongside you as you move through the house. No pedestals. No distance. Just art in a home, which is perhaps the best way to encounter it.
And then there is Cova — an outpost of the beloved Milanese pasticceria tucked into the ground floor. Sitting down for a coffee here feels like being in a friend’s living room, surrounded by art and conversation, with no reason to rush. It is, somehow, the perfect finishing note.
More than anything, CASABIANCA feels like a gift. To Como, to the community, and to anyone who believes that beauty is better when it is shared. Leave the map at the door. Let yourself slow down. You will leave with something — a new curiosity, a quieter pace, a deeper appreciation for spaces made with real intention.
More than anything, CASABIANCA feels like a gift. To Como, to the community, and to anyone who believes that beauty is better when it is shared. Leave the map at the door. Let yourself slow down. You will leave with something — a new curiosity, a quieter pace, a deeper appreciation for spaces made with real intention.