In 1835, the Italian-Canadian John Canessa decided to purchase the eighteenth-century inn with an adjoining post-office owned by the mail-coach that traveled the Sempione, and enlarge it to give Belgirate its first luxury hotel, Hotel Borromeo. The excellent service, attention to detail, the care of the furnishings, the well-tended garden, the view of the lake and the mildness of the climate attracted many Italian and international visitors that established the success of the next twenty-five years.
In the last years of the nineteenth century, Gaspare Piceni, a Genoese ship owner originating from Magognino, was the summer holidays in his family home. When his daughter Rosa, a little more than a teenager, caught a bad fever that gave no signs of fading, the young doctor, Venturino Martelli, was called with urgency. He diagnosed Rosa with an intestinal infection and prescribed medication that in short time relieved her of her symptoms.
