Villa del Sole, Villa in Sanremo, Italy

Villa del Sole is a late 19th-century Art Nouveau villa near the beginning of Via Val d'Olivi in Sanremo, northern Italy. It features a slender square tower with many windows, ornate stucco decorations, fish scale slate roofing, and a large garden that is open to the public.

Pio Soli designed the villa, built in 1898, drawing on decorative models from Villa Mi Sol and Villa Bevilacqua Marsaglia and on Charles Garnier's Riviera works. It passed early in the 1900s to Teodolinda Rebuffini Tomba, then for many years belonged to Duke Pietro d'Acquarone, Minister of the Royal Household from 1939 to 1944. Queen Elena stayed there occasionally during her visits to Sanremo.

The villa's name, Villa del Sole, refers to the sun and is shared with other Sanremo residences of the same period. Since 1973 it has been run by the Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The building's eclectic decoration, with stucco work by Luca Casella and Giovanni Bagliani, extends to the large park.

The villa stands in Sanremo, the Ligurian coastal city where Queen Elena stayed and where Duke Pietro d'Acquarone kept this residence. The sources record no visitor arrangements, opening times or parking, so check access with the Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who have managed the property since 1973.

The design of the villa's tower was shaped by ideas from Charles Garnier, the architect behind the Paris Opera, who had a strong influence on buildings along the Riviera in the late 1800s. Queen Helen of Savoy is said to have visited the villa during her stays in Sanremo, a detail rarely mentioned in passing.