Villa Margherita was built in 1853, commissioned by the publisher Giulio Ricordi, in Cadenabbia on Lake Como. The word “Margherita” stands on the pediment with the clock with two sculptures, probably depictions of music and poetry. Giuseppe Verdi was often a guest of his friend and here he composed part of the arias of La Traviata.
Giulio Ricordi became the new head of the Ricordi record company in 1888. He binds his name to the discovery of several musicians including Giacomo Puccini, of whom he was a great friend and through which the publishing activity reached its peak between the end of Nineteenth and early twentieth century. Villa Margherita is nowadays private property, but it is possible to recognize it both from the lake and from the main road thanks to its imposing structure. The large room that overlooks the garden once housed a large number of small concerts and distinguished guests. The garden, slightly downhill towards the lake, is partly visible from the road and houses several rare plants such as azaleas, rhododendrons and roses.
The memorabilia of the time tells of wonderful evenings when we passed near the villa during the moonlit evenings, it seemed we could grasp the magical encounter between the harmonies of human art and the music of greens that played its spinet in front of the lake of Como. Another illustrious guest who often attends the villa was Amilcare Ponchielli, here began the long and troubled phase of processing that led him to the realization of the opera I Lituani, which enjoyed a great success at the Milan scale in 1874. Another guest of villa Ricordi was Anton Rubinstein, composer, conductor, founder of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, brilliant, virtuoso and teacher of Buchi nella Sabbia by Ernesto Ragazzoni. Also Logfellow dedicated some poems to Cadenabbia. Among the rulers who stayed in Cadenabbia there were also Queen Victoria of England, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Prince Umberto of Savoy and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.