La Rondinaia, Mediterranean villa in Ravello, Italy

La Rondinaia is a villa built around 1930 on the edge of a cliff in Ravello, on the Amalfi Coast. It has six floors and about 600 square metres of floor space, and its name means "the swallows' nest" (rondine is Italian for swallow). The garden around it covers 4 hectares.

La Rondinaia began as part of Villa Cimbrone, owned by Ernest Beckett, 2nd Baron Grimthorpe. His daughter Lucy had the villa built around 1930 and moved in. It stands on the edge of a cliff, which gave it the name "The swallows' nest". Gore Vidal bought it in 1972 after Howard Austen spotted a classified ad in Rome's Il Messaggero.

Gore Vidal bought La Rondinaia in 1972 after his companion Howard Austen spotted it in a classified ad in Rome's Il Messaggero. Guests at the villa included Paul Newman, Greta Garbo, Princess Margaret, Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol, Tennessee Williams, Italo Calvino and Hillary Clinton. Critic David Cunningham called it "perhaps the last great author's home/artistic salon".

La Rondinaia stands on the cliff edge above Ravello, reached by narrow local roads; the grounds cover 4 hectares of terraced garden with steep level changes. The villa can be rented, so access is not open to casual visitors. Confirm arrangements with the property before travelling.

The villa's name means "the swallows' nest" (rondine is Italian for swallow), a reference to its position on the edge of a cliff. Gore Vidal's companion Howard Austen found the property through a classified ad in Rome's Il Messaggero newspaper. Vidal added a swimming pool in 1984, and the villa appears as a filming location in the 2004 movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.