Villa Franchetti o “Villalago”

Set on a hill with a panoramic view of the Piediluco lake, in the Terni area, surrounded by a park, stands Villa Franchetti or “Villalago”. It was built by Baron Eugenio Franchetti between 1888 and 1893 as a “holiday home”. The building designed by the architect G. Boccini is clearly inspired by the neo-Renaissance, with a typically Tuscan matrix. The villa is spread over three floors. To welcome the visitor, the main facade with the entrance door inserted in a walled Serlian loggia. The rear elevation is striking, characterized by the portico with a central serliana, surmounted by the terrace on the first floor. Inside, the villa contains an important central staircase with beautiful period flooring and halls on the ground floor with vaulted ceilings decorated with stucco, plaster or wood. One of the halls was painted by the Terni artist Giulio Mirimao. The caretaker’s house and the former stables complete the complex. The pertinent area of ​​the villa consists of a vast English-style naturalistic-landscape park, created by exploiting the pre-existing wood composed essentially of downy oak and supplemented by new plantings. Along the west side of the villa there is a small garden consisting of a grassy parterre with a central fountain. It is from here that the green spaces begin to slope down towards the valley with a series of panoramic terraces until they reach the open-air theatre, home, until a few years ago, to open-air cultural and recreational events.