| La Rondinaia | |
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 View of La Rondinaia from the sea | |
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La Rondinaia (built 1930) is a villa in Ravello on the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy.
| La Rondinaia | |
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| View of La Rondinaia from the sea | |
| |
La Rondinaia (built 1930) is a villa in Ravello on the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy.
Initially, the property was a part of the Villa Cimbrone, owned by Ernest Beckett, 2nd Baron Grimthorpe. His daughter Lucy had La Rondinaia built around 1930 and began living there. It is built on the edge of a cliff, hence its name "The swallows nest" (rondine means swallow in Italian). [1] It has six floors and is 600 square metres (6,500 sq ft) in size. The surrounding garden is 4 hectares (9.9 acres). [2]
It was owned by American writer Gore Vidal and his partner Howard Austen, from 1972 to 2006, who added a pool and sauna in 1984. [3] [4] While he owned the villa, Vidal hosted Paul Newman, Mick Jagger, Greta Garbo, Princess Margaret, Bruce Springsteen, Tennessee Williams, Italo Calvino and Hillary Clinton. Critic David Cunningham referred to La Rondinaia as "perhaps the last great author's home/artistic salon". [5] After Austen's death in 2003 and due to his failing health, Vidal posted it for sale around 2004 for around € 14,000,000. [4] It was eventually sold to Vincenzo Palumbo, a local hotelier. [6]
In 2015, Palumbo offered the property for sale at £ 20,000,000. [7] [8]
The villa was one location for the 2004 movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou . [4]
Amalfi is a town and comune in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto, surrounded by dramatic cliffs and coastal scenery. The town of Amalfi was the capital of the maritime republic known as the Duchy of Amalfi, an important trading power in the Mediterranean between 839 and around 1200.
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the social and sexual norms he perceived as driving American life. Vidal was heavily involved in politics, and unsuccessfully sought office twice as a Democratic Party candidate, first in 1960 to the U.S. House of Representatives, and later in 1982 to the U.S. Senate.
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Positano is a village and comune on the Amalfi Coast, in Campania, Italy, mainly in an enclave in the hills leading down to the coast.
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Ravello is a comune (municipality) situated above the Amalfi Coast, in the province of Salerno, Campania, with approximately 2,500 inhabitants. Its scenic location makes it a popular tourist destination, and earned it a listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
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Villa Cimbrone is a historic villa in Ravello, on the Amalfi Coast of southern Italy. Dating from at least the 11th century, it is famous for its scenic belvedere, the Terrazza dell'Infinito.
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The Chiesa di San Giovanni del Toro is a church in Ravello, southern Italy.
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