Gardener cottage of Villa Anelli · Ground Floor

THE GARDENER'S COTTAGE — GROUND FLOOR
Villa Anelli, Oggebbio, Lake Maggiore

The Gardener's Cottage of Villa Anelli has stood since 1872. The ground floor has been carefully restored: small, cosy, and full of light, it overlooks a historic botanical garden recognised as an International Garden of Excellence by the ICS since 2010, and as an open-air museum within the Upper Lake Maggiore Museum Network.

It is not a holiday flat. It is a place where you can truly unwind.

THE SPACE
Il Cottage del Giardiniere is the ground floor of a nineteenth-century country house set within the historic gardens of Villa Anelli, in Oggebbio, on the Piedmontese shore of Lake Maggiore. Separate, pedestrian-only entrance.

The rooms are cosy and well-kept: a bright bow-window veranda that draws in the morning light, stoneware floors, a bathroom with mosaic tiles and a large mirror, a fully equipped kitchen with induction hob, microwave and dishwasher. The extra bed is a sofa bed in the same room.

Small in size. Generous in every other way.

A short walk from Piazza Italia in Oggebbio — bus stop, café, pharmacy, grocery shop. Opposite the Albergo Bel Soggiorno, on Via Micotti. Free public parking in the square with time restrictions; a few bends further up, free parking with no time limit. A panoramic path connects the upper parking to the square. The lake and a free beach with showers are reachable on foot.

The entrance gate and path to the cottage are lit at night.

THE GARDEN
Guests have free and independent access to the garden of Villa Anelli: an award-winning arboretum with a camellia collection that flowers throughout the year.

Over 318 colourful Japonica cultivars fill the hillside in spring. Forty Sasanqua carry warm copper and rose tones through the winter months. Precious tea plants — Camellia sinensis, the species from which all tea is made — bloom quietly in September. Reticulata and rare botanical species complete a collection built and refined across more than a century.

Beyond the camellias: bamboo groves, azaleas, rhododendrons, Japanese maples, hydrangeas, conifers, aromatic herbs, and water features fed by the Rio Paradiso, the small stream that crosses the property. Private corners with wrought-iron tables overlooking the lake. A vegetable garden where guests are welcome to pick whatever is in season.

This is not a garden designed to impress. It is a garden that has been tended and loved across four generations. The difference is visible — and felt.

EXPERIENCES
On request, we organise:

Botany and gardening workshops with Andrea Corneo, agronomist. Andrea was born in this garden. He is one of Italy's foremost camellia experts and the current president of the Società Italiana della Camelia. A session with him is not a guided tour — it is a conversation with someone who knows every plant by name and has travelled the world to find them. He will show you propagation techniques, explain the varieties, and — if the timing is right — let you take a cutting home.

Participatory decoration and wine tasting workshops with Orsola. Orsola is a sommelier, a student of Sociology of Tourism and Local Communities, a member of the International Art Guild and the World Egg Artist Association. Her workshops range from wine tasting — including the family's own DOC labels from Lake Garda — to EggArt, the tradition of decorating eggshells she has practised and taught for years. You do not watch. You make.

We also provide a comprehensive guide to local attractions: restaurants the locals actually use, walking trails for every level, historic gardens nearby, and preferential rates with guides for excursions in the Val Grande National Park and surrounding valleys. Bicycle parking and e-bike charging available on request.

WHO WE ARE
We are Orsola and Andrea. Villa Anelli is the heart of our family — we come here every week from Milan, and each time the garden has something new to reveal.

The name La Camelia d'Oro comes from an extremely rare plant, the Camellia chrysantha, planted here in the 1960s. It blooms once every five years: a single small yellow flower, simple and fleshy. Anyone who sees it remembers it forever. The same name appears in James Clavell's novel Shogun — the inn where the protagonist finds rest with his beloved at the most intense moment of his life. A buen retiro, hidden from the world.

For us, La Camelia d'Oro means exactly that: a place loaded with history and meaning, quiet and rare, where time slows down and the view is never less than extraordinary.

Andrea, agronomist and president of the Società Italiana della Camelia, was born in this garden. He has travelled across Japan, China, New Zealand and Portugal in search of plants, and brings that knowledge back to Oggebbio every time. When he is not in the garden, he is on the mountain bike trails of the Upper Lake Maggiore, exploring places that do not appear on any map.

Orsola was born in Verona, married into this garden, and has never looked back. Sommelier, student of Sociology of Tourism, theatre enthusiast, and dedicated practitioner of EggArt — she is the person who will make sure your stay feels designed for you personally. She will tell you which restaurant opens on Tuesdays, which path is worth the climb, and which wine pairs with the local cheese.

With us: Carlo Annibale, sixteen, and Fiammetta, ten — who follow their parents everywhere and already know the garden better than most adults ever will.

Villa Anelli has been recognised as an International Garden of Excellence by the ICS since 2010. Open-air museum within the Upper Lake Maggiore Museum Network. Certified Educational Farm, registered in the Piedmont Regional Register. We are on the Via delle Genti, the Via Borromea, the San Carlo pilgrimage circuit, and the GTA — Grande Traversata delle Alpi, the great crossing of the northern Piedmont Alps.

Not just any spot on the lake. A landmark for walkers, for lovers of historic gardens, for those who want to pause and mean it.

GOOD TO KNOW
The garden of Villa Anelli is on a steep hillside, crossed by the Rio Paradiso stream. The internal paths are beautiful but demanding — some sections are exposed. Oggebbio itself is largely pedestrianised and uphill. This place is ideal for those who enjoy walking and are comfortable in natural surroundings. We recommend it warmly, and honestly.

Tourist tax: €1 per person per night, payable on arrival.

The tap water in Oggebbio has a history. For years it was bottled, distributed and recognised for its quality. Then the bottling cycle came to an end — not because the water had become any less good, but because the world around it had changed. That same water now flows straight from your tap. Drinkable. Good. Local. Turning on the tap in Oggebbio is not a compromise: it is an act of continuity with a history that has been going on for decades — and it supports the local community. Bring a reusable water bottle. Fill it at the tap. That is what the people of Oggebbio have always done.

Getting here: 26 km from the Borromean Islands, 28 km from Piazza Grande in Locarno, 28 km from Ascona Patriziale Golf Club. Milan Malpensa Airport is 79 km away. The surrounding countryside is ideal for cycling.

The first floor of the Cottage is available as a separate listing here on VRBO — ideal for groups or families who wish to rent both apartments together.