Villa Necchi Campiglio

Villa Necchi Campiglio is the glamorous side of Milan in the years between the wars, preserved almost exactly as its owners left it. The villa was designed in the early 1930s by Piero Portaluppi, the architect of Milan's industrial bourgeoisie, for the Necchi sisters, Nedda and Gigina, and Gigina's husband Angelo Campiglio, a family from Pavia whose fortune came from cast iron and, later, the Necchi sewing machines. They wanted a modern house in the city with every comfort of a country estate, and they got one: a large private garden in the quiet streets between Corso Venezia and Via Mozart, a tennis court, and what is usually described as the first heated private swimming pool in Milan. Inside, Portaluppi's interiors mix rationalist geometry with luxury materials: rare woods, marble, geometric parquet, a winter garden glazed in etched glass, and details like the bronze grilles and the original kitchen and service areas that show how a staffed household actually worked. Some rooms were later redecorated in a more traditional eighteenth-century taste by Tomaso Buzzi, so the house is also a lesson in how taste shifted. The last of the family left the villa to the FAI, Italy's national trust, which opened it to the public after restoration and added two significant art collections: twentieth-century Italian paintings and sculpture from the Claudia Gian Ferrari collection, with works by artists such as Sironi, Martini and de Chirico, and eighteenth-century paintings and decorative arts from the de Micheli collection. Film fans will recognise the house from Luca Guadagnino's I Am Love, starring Tilda Swinton, and from House of Gucci. The guided or audio-guided tour takes about an hour, and the garden café beside the pool is one of the loveliest places in the city for a coffee.

Booking and access: the villa is open from Wednesday to Sunday and closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Visits to the house are by timed ticket, usually as guided tours or with an audio guide, and slots can sell out at weekends and during design and fashion weeks, so book ahead, either directly with the FAI or through Tiqets. The garden and the café can usually be visited without the house tour. FAI members enter free, and the FAI also sells a combined card for Milan's house museums that includes the Poldi Pezzoli and the Bagatti Valsecchi.

What to look for: the entrance hall and library, where Portaluppi's geometric detailing is at its sharpest; the veranda, a winter garden that once held exotic plants and still glows on grey days; the bedrooms and dressing rooms, with their wardrobes still full of period detail; and the service areas downstairs, which tell you more about the household than any of the reception rooms. The art collections are hung through the house, not in a separate gallery, so ask the guide to point out the main pieces. Photography rules vary by room; follow the staff.

Getting there and combining: the villa is on Via Mozart, a short walk from the Palestro and San Babila stops on the metro, and close to the Giardini Indro Montanelli, Milan's oldest public gardens. It fits neatly into a design-and-fashion day with the Quadrilatero della Moda, ten minutes' walk away, and the Poldi Pezzoli Museum on Via Manzoni. Couples should time the visit for late morning and stay for lunch or an aperitivo in the garden.