HOTEL SAN ROCCO

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Overlooking the shores of magical Orta in a natural contest and bounded by the ancient walls of a monastery, this building keeps its identity through the innovation that the Giacomini Group, to which it belongs, has been able to implement, combining the austerity of the architectural features with the high-tech features, all for nature and environment conservation. Therefore in 2010 it was certified as the first ICIM building environmentally sustainable hotel. In 2002 the complex was enriched by the prestigious Villa Gippini, an elegant baroque building which is part of the hotel.

History
Canon Angelo Fara reports in his edition of "La Riviera di San Giulio, Orta e Gozzano", published in Novara in 1861, that the central group of the present Hotel San Rocco was originally the ancestral home of the Priest Giovanni Gemelli of Orta (canon of the Island of San Giulio), who eventually in 1647 gave the San Rocco, together with a part of his land, to the foundation of the College dedicated to S. Orsola, kept by the Orsoline nuns.
As a proof to this belief, up to this day, it is possible to admire an oil painting, dated 28 October 1605, placed in the Hotel hall, which is the portrait of the first Mother Superior Anna Theodora Silana, promoter of the college. Closed and sold in 1813 with the reigning of Napoleone, the San Rocco once again became place of meditation some years later: the building, looking as architecturally similar to this day, was purchased by His Eminence Giacomo Felice Gentile, then Bishop, who formed a girl's school, under the direction of the Giuseppe nuns. For nearly 150 years, it was a seclusion convent, until the 1960 years, when the Giuseppine nuns gave it up for it to become the present Hotel.

Certified eco-friendly building
On January 28, 2010: ICIM, the Italian independent certification body founded in Milan in 1988 as a Certification Institute for Industrial Mechanics, awarded Hotel San Rocco in Orta San Giulio, the first certification for the category "building sustainable tourism and hotel. We are the first and only sustainable hotels in Italy.