Illustrious guests: who has passed through Capo d'Orlando
Not a list of celebrities spotted at the bar. Here, in a villa three kilometres from the corso, much of The Leopard was written — and on these islands Rossellini, Troisi and Moretti all shot films.
The Leopard was written here (in part)
Three kilometres from the corso, on the hill of Calanovella, stands a villa that hosted Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa for long stretches. Not in passing: after wartime bombing destroyed his house in Palermo, the future author of The Leopard spent whole months here — and precisely in the years he was composing the novel, between 1954 and 1957, the year of his death. The villa still holds unpublished letters of his. The most famous Italian novel of the twentieth century was largely born a quarter of an hour's drive from this square.
The unstamped letter
The story begins with a postage error. In 1954 Lucio Piccolo di Calanovella — baron, poet, and Tomasi's first cousin — had 9 liriche printed at his own expense by a press in Sant'Agata di Militello, and sent a copy to Eugenio Montale. He got the postage wrong: to collect a package bearing a 35-lire stamp, Montale had to pay 180 lire in surcharge. He opened it cursing — and was floored. He invited Piccolo to the literary convention at San Pellegrino Terme in July 1954, where the whole of Italian letters had gathered: Montale, Ungaretti, Cecchi, Maria Bellonci, and among the younger names Italo Calvino, Zanzotto, Bassani. Piccolo went accompanied by his cousin Tomasi. And it was there, according to the foundation that keeps the villa today, that the spark struck Tomasi for the novel he had been brooding on for years. One detail makes the whole story: the covering letter to Montale had been written by Tomasi himself, for fun, to pique his curiosity.
Pound and Orson Welles
Lucio Piccolo barely left Sicily, yet his admirers were found well beyond it: Ezra Pound called his poetry «magnificent and unattainable»; Orson Welles called him «a genius of poetry». Tomasi di Lampedusa himself, in his final years, compared him to T. S. Eliot. He died here, in Capo d'Orlando, in 1969.
Three siblings out of time
The villa was home to three siblings who now seem to have stepped out of a novel — and in a sense they did. Lucio, the poet, a fine pianist who never performed in public, a reader of seven languages including Persian. Casimiro, baron, painter and photographer, who painted watercolours of fairies and dabbled in spiritualism. Agata Giovanna, a passionate botanist who filled the park with rare species. They had withdrawn here in the 1920s with their mother, Baroness Teresa Tasca Filangeri di Cutò, who had left the salons of Florio-era Palermo behind. In the park, at the end of the wisteria pergola, lies Casimiro's dog cemetery — one of the few in the world.
«Sapore di sale» was born here
Summer 1963. Gino Paoli comes to Capo d'Orlando for a run of shows in a dance hall; the owner suggests he stay another fortnight, and he agrees. He lodges — his own words, in an interview given many years later — in «a deserted house near a deserted beach». Out of that stay comes «Sapore di sale», which went to the Cantagiro and became one of the most famous Italian songs ever written. The beach is the one at the village of San Gregorio, and the town has not forgotten: the municipal summer programme still devotes an evening to it.
And on the islands, cinema
Facing Capo d'Orlando is an archipelago the cinema has used more than once. Roberto Rossellini shot Stromboli on the island in 1949 with Ingrid Bergman: the film that caused a scandal before it was even released, because the two fell in love on set. Forty years later, at Pollara on Salina, Massimo Troisi shot Il Postino — his last film. And Nanni Moretti devoted the entire Islands chapter of Caro diario to the Aeolians, filming across Lipari, Salina, Stromboli, Panarea and Alicudi. The islands, one by one →
And in summer, in the square
The tradition continues in its own way: every year the town's programme brings to Piazza Matteotti and the Marina names that fill the town. In the summer of 2026 that meant Cristina D'Avena, Mara Sattei, Marina Rei, Aiello and Shablo, Rob and EroCaddeo. The summer calendar →
Visiting Villa Piccolo
The villa and its park are run by the Fondazione Famiglia Piccolo di Calanovella and are open to visitors: a museum with paintings, photographs, watercolours, ceramics and Tomasi's letters; a park with Agata Giovanna's rare plants and the dog cemetery. Opening hours change with the season, so check before driving up — or ask us on WhatsApp, we'll know. It's a quarter of an hour from us by car. Rooms and apartments on the corso →
Frequently asked questions
Where was The Leopard written?
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa wrote much of the novel during his long stays at Villa Piccolo di Calanovella in Capo d'Orlando, as a guest of his Piccolo cousins, especially between 1954 and 1957.
Can you visit Villa Piccolo in Capo d'Orlando?
Yes: the villa is now a museum with a park, run by the Fondazione Famiglia Piccolo di Calanovella, a few kilometres from the centre of Capo d'Orlando. Opening hours vary by season and are worth checking before visiting.
Who was Lucio Piccolo?
A Sicilian poet (Palermo 1901 – Capo d'Orlando 1969), Baron of Calanovella and first cousin of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. He was discovered by Eugenio Montale, who presented him at the San Pellegrino Terme literary convention in 1954. Ezra Pound called his poetry magnificent and unattainable.
Which films were shot in the Aeolian Islands?
Among the best known: Rossellini's Stromboli, shot on the island in 1949 with Ingrid Bergman; Il Postino by Massimo Troisi, shot at Pollara on Salina; and the Islands chapter of Nanni Moretti's Caro diario, filmed across Lipari, Salina, Stromboli, Panarea and Alicudi.
Related destinations: Capo d'Orlando, Stromboli, Salina.
Stay in Capo d'Orlando
A base in the centre — and everything else becomes a day trip.
The port for the Aeolians is 45 minutes away, the Nebrodi right behind. Breakfast served early for dawn departures.
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