Villa La Colombaia and Luchino Visconti’s elegance

Iconic Italian actress Claudia Cardinale once described the great Milanese director and scriptwriter Luchino Visconti (1906-1976) by saying, “everything in him had superlative class […], everything in him complied with a criterion of great elegance”.

Class, elegance and, obviously, beauty, are some of the most fitting words to describe Villa La Colombaia, where Visconti retreated in the 1950s.

Located on the Zaro promontory on Ischia, in the Gulf of Naples, it was purchased by Visconti from a baron, who in turn had bought it from a poet and writer – who in the late 1800s wanted to build, in the middle of the local, luxuriant vegetation, a house with the crenellated profile and ogival arches of a Medieval French castle.

Visconti renovated it according to his excellent taste, and now Villa La Colombaia is the headquarters of the Foundation of the same name, and since 2004 of the Luchino Visconti Museum, which showcases costumes, images and memorabilia from masterpieces of cinema history like “Obsession”, “Bellissima”, “Rocco and His Brothers”, “The Leopard”, and “Death in Venice”.

It is a treasure that must be preserved, despite the financial and management difficulties that unfortunately weigh down the institution.