William J. ArcherThere’s this amazing four-star hotel less than a kilometer from the Milan Malpensa Airport. It’s a lovely building, nestled just off of a narrow country lane, sitting regally behind a stone-and-iron fence in Ticino National Park. It’s not something you might expect to find in the location you find it. But I’m so happy it’s there.
a little history…
The hotel is a reclamation project of the Bonini family, and was once the pride of the Caproni industrial empire, which fell apart after WWII. But you can get the full blurb about the place online, or better yet, from the pamphlet at the hotel.
The copy written in English is so exquisitely butchered that that alone makes a stay almost mandatory. I would put it up on the blog but I think you should just go see for yourself. I was both wildly entertained while reading it, and eventually even educated somewhat when I managed to decipher the baffling code.
English is a brutally unforgiving second language. And, for some English-speaking folks, it’s also a brutally unforgiving first language. So absolutely no points were deducted for an imperfect translation. On the contrary, add half a star for making my already lovely day that much better.
“Una lingua diversa è una diversa visione della vita”.
~ Federico Felini
Before I make a condescending cad of myself (if there’s still time), let me admit that I barely speak ten words of Italian, though a stack of one-hundred Italian flash-cards sits not seventy centimeters from my eyes at least six hours out of every day. But I’m in Macedonia at the time of this writing, and struggling to get a handle on just the Macedonian alphabet, let alone learn full sentences. I’ve not made any time to learn Italian yet.
Digressing. Back to Hotel Villa Malpensa.
An eager, helpful young chap came to pick us up from the airport, gratis. And, upon our arrival at the hotel, we were well taken care of by the wonderfully welcoming hotel concierge.
Hotel Villa Malpensa has what looks like a decent-sized swimming pool that was out of commission at the time of our visit (it was almost November), and sits on a comfortably big plot of well-manicured land across the lane from what used to be the estate’s farm. I’d like to return in the summer if possible and lounge about for a day or two in the Italian countryside.
Most likely, other than if you visit the hotel for the sake of visiting the hotel (unless you’re in an overnight transit through the Milan Malpensa Airport), you’ll likely have no reason to be in this neck of the woods. It’s in the middle of nowhere, and the closest village, Vizzola Ticino, is a thirty-minute walk away. Also, it’s tiny it really doesn’t have much to offer strangers, although my wife and I did get a big friendly “Ciao” from two elderly, happy-looking gents who were out for an evening stroll.
The hotel itself is in a national park, however, and if you need a bit of time away from it all to wander around with nowhere in particular to be, this could very well suit your needs. It is close enough to Milan for a day trip, however, if lounging about in the countryside isn’t what you seek. Whatever the case, the hotel and grounds are beautiful, and certainly do have a bit of magic to them.
Around the corner from Villa Malpensa
This may come as a huge surprise, but, believe it or not, the food at Villa Malpensa was great! Really! Okay, joking aside, I think it can be universally accepted that food in Italy is known to be generally fantastic. And there was no exception here.
The hotel was perfectly clean, with classy rooms for under €80/night, helpful and friendly staff, some interesting architecture, and a colourful history (which I urge you to read from the pamphlet), and it provided a quiet and comfortable, relaxing setting not four minutes from the airport, which, for some mysterious reason, you can barely hear.
If you ever want or need a classy stay in a beautiful hotel in the middle of Italian nowhere on your way to or from anywhere that passes through the Milan Malpensa Airport, you might consider Hotel Villa Malpensa.
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2 comments
Howdy! I could have sworn I’ve visited your blog before but after going through some of the posts I realized it’s
new to me. Anyhow, I’m certainly happy I found it and I’ll be bookmarking it and checking back frequently!
Thank you very much! we’re glad you like the blog. It’s fallen a little behind but we plan to have it all up to date over the next few weeks. Stay tuned!