Villa Crespi

A Moorish-style 1879 villa on Lake Orta: minaret, arabesque interiors, the works. 14 suites only. Antonino Cannavacciuolo's three-Michelin-star kitchen (third star awarded November 2022, for the 2023 Guide Italia).

Cristoforo Crespi built the villa in 1879 in flamboyant Moorish style (a working textile entrepreneur who wanted to bring a piece of Baghdad home) and the result is a building that looks exactly the way you don't expect a Lake Orta hotel to look: minaret, arabesque archways, gilded ceilings, Persian tilework, the whole Thousand-and-One-Nights vocabulary. Fourteen suites only. Antonino Cannavacciuolo and his wife Cinzia have run it since 1999; the restaurant earned its third Michelin star in late 2022 for the 2023 Guide. The cooking is Cannavacciuolo's signature southern-Italian-roots-meets-haute-cuisine register: two tasting menus, the Italian Journey at €290 per person and the table-wide Inner Spirit at €330 per person, without wine pairings (checked July 2026). Orta San Giulio village is a five-minute walk down to the lake; the island of San Giulio (Benedictine monastery) is five minutes more by boat.

• Best for — couples

• Neighborhood — Lake Orta · Orta San Giulio
• Rooms — 14
• Price — €€€€
• 14 suites only
• 3 Michelin stars · since 2022
• Relais & Châteaux

From the HALA guide, reviewed August 2026.

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