A new cycle and pedestrian path, about 6 km long, allows the enhancement of areas of great landscape and natural interest. It runs along Lake Annone, through wooded areas and wetlands with numerous local species. But the simple description fails to give the idea of ​​foreshortenings and colors. We must get closer and live it more to enjoy its beauty. With short detours of the route it is possible to reach the center of the village, with the short features, the manor villas including Villa Caillard and Villa Gatti and the fifteenth-century church of San Giorgio.

Villa Giani

Eighteenth-century residence with Baroque elements, located in front of the old rectory, accessed by a wide portal along the main road. The villa originally belonged to the Annone family, passed to the Giani family at the end of the 18th century. It is owned by the Lavatelli brothers, direct heirs of a Giani. The estate is enriched by the beautiful 6000 square meter park, characterized by splendid gardens and secular trees, from which you can admire the pre-Alpine landscape dominated by the Grigna and Resegone mountains praised by Manzoni. The spacious lounges are furnished with fine antique furniture and original frescoes dating back to the 1700s decorate the walls.

Villa Sant’Ubaldo alla Fornace – Villa Sansoni

Villa Sansoni is an ancient building on the shores of the lake with its majestic garden and lime trees. It has been called in this way for years by the inhabitants of Annone because since its construction it has never had a real official name.

From a profitable brick factory, at the beginning of the 1930s the land with the factory was purchased by Professor Ernestina Brenna, a professor of pedagogy in Milan. The Lady lived with her elderly father and it was she who transformed the building into the charming villa that still remains. The Lady gave particularity to the house embellishing it with the construction of the large terraces, the staircase and the loggia, all facing the shores of the lake with an enchanting view towards the surrounding villages and the Resegone beyond the lake.

In 1939 the property was bought by Mrs Anna Sansoni. Passionate about art, she lived in the villa until her death in 1977. The heir of the property was a cousin of Signora Sansoni, Amedeo who occasionally used the villa as a summer residence. In 1994 the heirs of Ms Sansoni succeeded in selling the villa to Count Jacopo Vittorelli and his wife Maria Luisa Paolucci. They were the spouses who brought the house back, but above all the garden, to its charming and romantic appearance. They called the villa with the name of Sant’Ubaldo alla Fornace.

Villa Annoni Cabella

It is located immediately north of the current parish church. It was constituted by a six-eighteenth-century complex with two floors, with an L-shaped plan. To the east head of the main body a quadrangular tower is grafted rather high in relation to the dimensions of the other parts of the complex. Probably a tower built in the Romantic era as a lookout. On the back of the villa is the garden. It is bordered and protected by a high wall of archaic construction consisting of round pebbles.

The park lies on a lush hilly area shaded by monumental trees and other fruit trees. From the main hall you can admire the long avenue that completely crosses the park. Belonged to the counts Annoni, in 1751 it was inhabited by Count Annone Don Francesco, the then head of the vast and branching Annoni family. Later it passed to the Marquis Dellora and finally, towards the end of the nineteenth century, to the Cabella family. Since 2000 it is owned by the Municipality of Annone di Brianza.

It has a fairly common typology in the Brianza area. A massive two-storey linear block with very little decorative façade elements. The triportico of the main body has very simple round arches, without frames, cross-vaulted. It is connected orthogonally to a second arcade compartment, with stone columns but with a wooden architrave, denoting two different construction periods.

San Giuseppe ai Ronchetti

The most painful events took place as early as 1524 with the pests that struck Milan and Lombardy, decimating thousands of people in the city and in the countryside. During the famines many people were forced to eat grass and tree barks. Another real human massacre occurred during the deadly plague, known as the S. Carlo. It was erupted in the city in 1576 and spread rapidly in the countryside of the Duchy, brought by fugitives who came out in search of healthy air.

Even Brianza remained a victim of this disease, when it reached even the most peripheral centers. No less terrible was the third plague, that mentioned by Manzoni in “I Promessi sposi“, which broke out in 1630. The plague was carried and transmitted in 1629 by the Croats and Lanzichenecchi during their descent through the Valtellina and the Valsassina and then along the bank of the Adda and the Po for the occupation of Mantovano. Those affected were forced to live isolated and outside the built-up area. Those who died were buried to avoid contagion. In memory of the Annonesi, victims of the plague of 1630, the Cappelletta di S. Giuseppe ai Ronchetti was built on the outskirts of the town, where we can still read the tombstone