Villa Valguarnera

This is Villa Valguarnera, considered already by Giuseppe Pitrè, an Italian writer and anthropologist, as the most sumptuous of the Bagherian villas. The construction of the villa started in 1712, based on the designs of Tommaso Maria Napoli, an architect who was also a member of the Dominican Order. It was erected by the Princes Valguarnera, and even today it is owned by their heirs, the Princes Alliata di Villafranca.

The historic house was famous as well for many celebrities of their day who sojourned in the villa.

In the 1950s, Fosco Maraini, the famous Italian ethnologist, orientalist, alpinist, photographer, writer, and poet, and his wife, writer, painter, and gallerist Topazia Alliata di Salaparuta, lived here with their daughter, Dacia Maraini, well-known writer in her own right, poet, essayist, dramaturg, and screenwriter.