From this villa with its unusual octagonal plan, facing directly across from Villa Pliniana, a French noblewoman received the news that would change the course of her life forever.
A singular and elegant residence if only for its octagonal architecture, Villa Ripiego was built for count Triulzio in Carate Urio, on the high shore of the lake. It was here that, after leaving her lover Cesare Stampa, marquis of Soncino, at the nearby Villa Pliniana in Torno, the Duchess of Plaisance chose to settle, in a position that let her keep her gaze fixed on that villa across the lake, the setting of her love affair that had just ended. It was here, too, that the noblewoman was reached by news of the death of Emilio di Belgiojoso: an event that shook her deeply, reviving feelings of guilt that led her to a new way of life, devoted from then on to the poor and needy.
Later passed to the counts Viganotti Giusti, who furnished it with great luxury, and more recently to the Rossini Cazzaniga family, the villa still preserves its lakefront garden and swimming pool today, while the name by which it is known - “il Ripiego”, “the fallback” - hints at how, from the very start, it was chosen as a refuge rather than a residence of representation.