Globorati writes:

Over the years, the town has also been a retreat for DH Lawrence, Graham Greene and most of the Bloomsbury set. Now, the former home of its most recent A-list resident, Gore Vidal, has been sold and is being turned into a luxury hotel, slated to open next spring. On a recent trip, globorati met with its new owner, Vincenzo Palumbo, who gave us a private tour of the fairy-tale villa that for 30 years was the writer's full-time hideaway.

The setting of the seven-bedroom mansion is impossibly remote, suspended over a bluff facing the Mediterranean and accessed by only a private pathway winding up the cliffside hills. The house and grounds were the vision of Big Ben architect Lord Grimthorpe, who also built next door's fabled Villa Cimbrone (one of Europe's most romantic gardens and the love nest of Greta Garbo and conductor Leopold Stokowski). In homage to the last surviving giant of American literature, Palumbo plans to leave the ground-floor studio with Vidal's personal library and artifacts intact. If it's done right, Villa Rondinaia (Swallow's Nest) will be the most exclusive address anywhere on the Amalfi Coast.

Last update: 01-29-2009 20:39