The life of Guido Monzino

3Atur 2024/2025

Villa Balbianello: a special discovery 

In the 1970s, maybe because he felt he needed a steady place after traveling so much, Guido started looking for a place of his own. Not just a normal house, but somewhere that could reflect his view of the world. He found it in 1974: Villa Balbianello, at the tip of the Lavedo peninsula, on Lake Como. The villa was beautiful, but not well cared for. It didn’t matter : Guido was fascinated by it. In that elegant and forgotten place, he immediately saw something more. It was like art, nature, and adventure were all mixed together in one image. That villa was the perfect symbol of everything he had always been looking for. Once he became the owner, he didn’t waste any time. He started the restoration works with a lot of respect for the history of the building. The inside was fixed without changing it too much, and the gardens came back to life thanks to his careful and passionate work. But the real change was inside: Guido filled the villa with memories of his expeditions. Every object, photo, and map had a story to tell. Walking through the rooms of Balbianello today is like leafing through the diary of a life. There is nothing cold or museum-like: everything is authentic, personal, lived. It is like entering the head (and heart) of a man who has seen the world and decided to tell it like this. As the years passed, Guido Monzino began to really think about it. He had spent a whole life travelling, exploring, collecting objects, stories, emotions… and all of this had ended up concentrated there, inside the Villa del Balbianello. But what would happen to it when he was no longer there? He didn’t want to see it end up emptied, maybe sold, transformed into something cold.

 

The legacy of a man who didn’t want to disappear 

Monzino was the last one to live in that house. If he hadn’t taken action, today there would probably be a sign with written on “private property” or a closed gate. Or it would have become a fancy hotel for a few people. But no, it’s still there. It tells about him, about his experiences and curiosity. Every room has a detail that represents him and you can feel it. The truth is that Monzino didn’t want to be remembered with a statue, he wanted that his adventures spoke for themselves. And today is exactly like that, who enters the villa meets him. So, in 1988, just before leaving, he made a decision which says everything about him: he left the villa to the FAI, the Italian environmental fund. But not only the villa. inside were his maps, the forniture, the collections, even objects that he  brought home from expeditions to the ends of the earth. everything. and that choice made the difference. The FAI has been able to take care of it. today the villa is open to anyone. you can enter it, walk through the gardens, look out over the lake, sit on a bench and in all this … Monzino’s presence is still felt. it hasn’t become a cold museum. it remained his, even if now it belongs to everyone. the legacy of a man who didn’t want to disappear.