Marcello Mastroianni's Tuscan Retreat

In contrast to yesterday's shoe box weekend retreat, and in response to a request,this is the late Marcello Mastroianni's Tuscan getaway.

I do not have a powerful zoom lens and should have gone closer but the house is perched in such a way that all of it can only be seen from a distance. It is also a very foggy day. Excuses, excuses.

In the foreground is the caretaker's house. The original one-story square farmhouse is to the right and an addition to it is to the left. Only a very famous and influential person could have obtained planning permission for such a building. It dominates the valley and is none too pretty. The traditional apartment block building for farm workers and a splendid lemon house cannot be seen.

The interior is not as flamboyant and luxurious as one might suppose. The old kitchen has been converted to a dining room and a new kitchen added. One ground floor bedroom was changed into a living room and the other was Maistroianni wife's. His own bedroom was at the top of the new addition.

The former hay loft is a maze of tiny, tiny guest bedrooms with even tinier bathrooms. It is only possible to stand up in them near the doors. The roof slants sharply and guests would have had to go on hands and knees to see out of the windows. One cannot help but have visions of La Dolce Vita style house parties with all the rooms occupied by movie people.

Just under the roof you can make out large windows. These look all the way over the valley to the sea. Breath taking. The whole of the top floor was his bedroom/dressing room/bathroom and decorated in the latest 1960s chic.

The bed was raised on a carpeted dais of bricks painted black. He would have seen an incredible view without even sitting up in bed. The bedside tables were made of black bricks, too. The walls, carpet and the satin bedspread were French grey. The walls had large, smoked mirrors. His dressing room had smoked mirrors, too, but also large photographs of Maistroianni as a young man. Cor, he was beautiful!

He was well liked in the neighbourhood. He attended local events when staying in Tuscany "like an ordinary person". It is said he often brought Catherine Deneuve, mother of his second daughter, to stay. By the time we arrived, the scenes of starlets splashing in the pool were long gone. The pool, in fact, had a large crack in it.

The house, now used occasionally by his daughter and her husband, is screened from ours only by a few trees. Marcello Mastroianni died in December 1996. He was 72.

See link for video of Mastroiannis