Origins

The first news regarding the history of the Hotel Il Castelletto date back to the first part of the XII century: if we analyse these information we presume that “Castelletto” was the original name for the area where the hotel was built.
In some meticulous historiographic researches regarding this area you can read the following words:

“Among the different areas that composed “Casarile”, “Castelletto” was the one that appeared to be the oldest. Probably, during the XII century, it was an autonomous community that lived in a fortified village.
This statement is confirmed by a document that dates back to the 1129, May 8th where, Bernardi, the bishop of Pavia, orders to protect and guard the tower of Castelletto, if it needs to be guarded, (...),in order to protect the communities that lived in the limits of his diocese from attacks by the armies of Milan; in the meantime he orders to protect also the tower and the walls of the castle in Binasco to defend the land of Pavia.
In Castelletto there was not a real castle but a sort of “fortress” provided with a tower built by the inhabitants to have a strategic place to control all the territory, where there were often terrible battles between the army of the Empire with the army of Pavia, and the army of some other little free lands leaded by the city of Milan (...).
In the Middle- Ages, Castelletto was a village inhabited by people who worked as colonists of the monastery in Pavia or also pursued other activities”.
Taken out of: A.M. Cuomo, “Casarile: Storia di un comune della provincia milanese”, Motta Visconti 1998, pages 26-27.

Recent history

It is very important to know that during the Middle- Ages, Binasco became the main centre between Milan and Pavia.
Its importance grew considerably and the Vincontis decided to improve the way in order to have a better connection between the two cities that, there, had their fortress. For this reason this little village became better and it became also a point of reference for those who travelled between Pavia and Milan for commercial reasons.
Binasco offered wayfarers, who travelled with horse carriages, a lot of possibilities of refreshment rooms and spending nights, thanks to some inns (called “ospizi” at that time) and taverns.

But since the first years of the ‘40s the Castelletto is known as a simple structure made up of an inn and a little restaurant.
Later, during the ‘60s it was given the form of a “little castle” by its holders who decided to better the inn, giving the name of the ancient locality.

During the ‘80s the Castelletto was a Hotel, a Restaurant and a Disco when it passed under the meticolous management of Delio Chinosi.
He is from Piacenza and probably it’ s for this reason that he always has a warm and polite smile and he knows a lot about good food and wines. After having attended a school about “tourism”, he decided to move to London where he worked for the first time in some Italian and foreign restaurants.
During the first years of the ‘70s Delio embarked on a cruise ship in the Caribbean Sea , and probably this new experience enriched his professionalism; since that moment he started planning his profession in Italy, not to create a restaurant only, but a construction with many functions, imitating the foreign ones.
In 1975 he came back to Binasco and took the management of “Il Castelletto” attaining affectionate customers who appreciate his good restaurant: in 1985, he renewed the structure increasing the capacity that had become insufficient.

Then in 2005, Mr. Chinosi stated planning a new ambitious project of development to satisfy his customers’ modern exigencies.