A place of CONTRASTS

Filled with art, Murano glass and other treasures, this Milanese villa is experiencing a new era of splendour thanks to Marco Arosio

- BENEDETTA ROSSI

M arco Arosio is a collector and connoisseur, who has dedicated his life to the search for antiques that will make one's heart skip a beat. And Villa Singer, his home in Gorla, Milan, is filled with evidence of his years in the business. Built in the early 1900s by an Austrian nobleman, after whom the villa is named, the property was used as both a residence and a laboratory for creating perfumes.

Overlooking the banks of the Martesana Canal, there are locals who still remember the barges that docked to unload crates of dried roots, ready to be processed for the production of fragrances.

In the early 1900s, the area was a charming village-like suburb full of Liberty-style buildings such as Villa Singer, with lots of greenery and lovely views, and known as Little Paris.

Marco's great-grandfather fell in love with the area and bought Villa Singer in 1934. Here, his grandmother painted en plein air, and the house became a gathering place for fellow artists who came to paint and discuss art. This idyll ended abruptly with the Second World War, and in 1944 an American bombing raid devastated the district.

Gorla never quite recovered its bucolic charm and is now regarded as a somewhat notorious postcode, but it remains a creative district filled with artisans. Marco describes the area as 'a corner of great tranquility but also great vitality that Milanese industriousness made up of specialised workshops." And although not a maker like his neighbours, he has certainly been tireless in his creativity; working his magic on the villa, which had fallen into disrepair.