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Villa La Colombaia in located on the promontory of Zaro, overlooking the sea, in the north-western extremity of the island. It is surrounded by a wood of holm oaks, pines, eucalyptuses and the Mediterranean scrub. Luigi Pantalano, a literate and poet of Ischia, had the villa built towards the end of the 19^th century by the architect Roberto Pane with vaults and merlons to recreate a medieval castle seen during a trip in France. Among the famous guests there is also Giosuè Carducci. The owner was obliged to sell the villa in 1938, for reasons related to the forthcoming outbreaking of the war, which was bought in the fifties by the film director Luchino Visconti, who refurbished and personalised it.
Visconti gave to the Colombaia a liberty style by adding pavements from the great, ancient Campania’s villas in demolition and also by settling the garden with refined rose varieties from foreign countries.
The first Italian master of Parma’s University in Science and Technical Work in the theatre has been hosted here since 2003, under the chairmanship of Dario Fo and Bernardo Bertolucci, Premio Internazionale Luchino Visconti, dell’Alleanza Mondiale degli Autori. The villa became in 2004 a museum dedicated to Luchino Visconti, whose ashes rest in the garden: there are more than 300 pictures, costumes and antiques.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)