La Rondinaia


La Rondinaia is a villa in Ravello on the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy.

History

Initially, the property was a part of the Villa Cimbrone, owned by Ernest Beckett, 2nd Baron Grimthorpe. His daughter Lucy built La Rondinaia around 1930 and she took to living there. It is built on the edge of a cliff, hence its name "The swallows nest". It has six floors and is. The surrounding garden is.

Vidal ownership

It was owned by American writer Gore Vidal, and his partner Howard Austen, from 1972 to 2006, who added pool and sauna in 1984. While he owned the villa, Vidal hosted Paul Newman, Mick Jagger, Greta Garbo, Princess Margaret, Bruce Springsteen, Tennessee Williams, Italo Calvino and Hillary Clinton at the home. Critic David Cunningham referred to La Rondinaia as "perhaps the last great author's home/artistic salon."
After Austen's death in 2003, and for his own health reasons, he posted it for sale around 2004 for around. It was eventually sold to Vincenzo Palumbo, a local hotel man.

Recent sale

In 2015, Palumbo offered the property for sale at.

In popular culture

The villa was one location for the 2004 movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
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