The most renowned town at Lake Orta in Northern Italy is Orta San Giulio. It has a characteristic square, the Palazzotto (the ancient town-hall dating from 1582), the Sacro Monte (the sacred mountain) with 20 chapels (1591-1770) with paintings and sculptures picturing the life of St. Francis of Assisi. In the middle of the lake is the Isle of San Giulio with its Romanesque basilica (XII century), frescoes and an Oira-stone ambo (XII century). Already mentioned in a document signed by Emperor Otto I in 962, the small town became, under the rule of the Bishop-Count of Novara, the capital of a feud that remained autonomous until the Napoleonic age. At the crossroads locally known as the “crociera”, secular trees and a high boundary wall conceal the unusual architecture of Villa Crespi, built at the end of the 19^th century by the homonymous Lombard cotton industrialist. Today the residence is an exclusive hotel-restaurant.

The building has recovered its special glamour also thanks to Sikkens. The main objective of the restoration project was the revival of the original decoration, almost totally concealed by a decaying yellowish paint. The preparation works have brought the original painting to light: through a careful selection of the colours, as faithful as possible to the original ones, and an accurate application system based on Fondo Setaliet, Setaliet and Setaliet Velatura the Moresque façade of Villa Crespi has come back to its original magnificence.