In Oria, on the Como shore of Lake Lugano, stands Villa Fogazzaro Roi, the summer residence of the famous Italian writer Antonio Fogazzaro, who found inspiration here to compose and set "Piccolo Mondo Antico", his most famous novel, published in 1896.

Today the property of this extraordinary place has been bequeathed to the FAI, Fondo per l'ambiente italiano, by Marquis Giuseppe Roi, great-grandson of Antonio Fogazzaro, who - in the mid-twentieth century - renovated and tastefully refurbished every room to preserve and evoke the nineteenth-century settings in which the protagonists of the novel move.

The living rooms, the parlours, the study, the bedrooms, the kitchen: it almost seems as if the owners of the house have just gone out for a stroll.

Not to be missed is the splendid roof garden directly on the lake.