You get there by climbing the winding road that leads from Gargnano to the little village of Navazzo, escaping the coastal traffic to meet lonely landscapes, thrilling climbs and stunning views. Then, once you reach the top, you need to take an additional path of 700 meters in single lane on which access is controlled by a traffic light at the entrance. In short, Villa Sostaga is not exactly an easy to reach place: but this is where Gabriel Seresina, an entrepreneur from Milan with family roots in Gardone Riviera, arrived in 2004, looking for an opportunity to change his life.
“In 1968 I opened my company, Euroteam, which was in the racing cars business – he tells -. In 2002, however, I felt the need to stop and withdraw from a world that was no longer fit for me, so I began to conceive the idea of creating a hotel with all the features that I have never been able to find in 40 years of travelling around the world. ”
These are the premises from which boutique hotel Villa Sostaga was born: ten years after the original intuition of its founder, it has become one of the most charming locations of Lake Garda, a place that seems really suspended out of time, in a natural setting of extraordinary beauty.
“The construction of the building dates back to the end of 19th century – says Seresina -. It was the hunting residence of the Feltrinelli family and when I saw it for the first time it has been closed for over twenty years. To get there, there was only a dirt road, full of potholes and there was no sign of gardens. Yet I knew that this was the place I had been looking for and dreamed since I spent my summers as a child in Gardone Riviera, vowing to myself that sooner or later I would come back to live on Garda “.
October 2004 saw the beginning of an etremely challenging restoration project extremely, which went on with a team of employees working up to 12 hours a day until May 2005, when the Villa was officially opened. “They told me I was crazy, but maybe I just figured out first the potential of this area – says Seresina,who in this work was helped by his wife Gabriella Clapis -. It’s been a very difficult job, because we wanted to keep all the original structure and materials of the building, but this is what differentiates Villa Sostaga today from a common hotel like there are thousands around the world. ”
Open all year round, the boutique hotel has 19 rooms, ten in the villa and nine in the “dependance”: they are all different from eache other and named after the area that can be seen looking out the window. Classification is four stars, but, as the owner says, “we also give services fit for a five star hotel, such as the double tidying of the rooms which are cleaned in the morning and at 7 pm”. Turkish bath and shower solar access, ayurvedic massages by appointment, a swimming pool and a park of 40 hectares complement the offer of the Villa. And then there’s the restaurant, also opened to non-residents (by reservation) and overlooking a magnificent view of the lake: Garda chef Lorenzo Minini, who has been working in the Villa kitchens for seven years now, has created a menu almost perfectly balanced between local traditions and tastes (with interesting reinterpretations of local dishes such as Golden Perch with Piane White, Toasted Hazelnut oil and Agretto Raspberry), sea specialties (there is an aquarium for Canadian lobsters, which are proposed with spaghetti and pesto of dried tomatoes and onions) and meat. Bread and pasta are homemade and there’s a wine list with at least 200 labels with good representation of the Garda productions. The restaurant is open from 12.30 to 2 pm, and from 7.30 to 10 pm, but for the hotel guests there is also a menu with simpler dishes (Piccoli Piaceri) that you can order from 2.30 until 7.30 pm.
“I always try to think more as a customer than ad the owner of the hotel – concludes Seresina -. And I have always tried to convey to my staff the familiar sense of hospitality that has always characterized Villa Sostaga: we’ve got people here who book stays of three or even four weeks because, as they say, they feel like at home. And that, believe me, is the best compliment that I can receive.”
And now, not content with the results achieved with the Villa, Gabriele and Gabriella have embarked on a new challenge, taking on the management of the Tre Punte Hotel, always in Navazzo, a Three Stars completely renovated and launched a few months ago for the 2015 summer season.
Info: www.villasostaga.it
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