The villa of Arcore, the Certosa in Costa Smeralda and Zeffirelli’s palace in Rome: how many are there, what are they and how much is the real estate legacy left by Berlusconi worth

It is not easy to talk about the real estate empire that Silvio Berlusconi, who died last June 12 at the age of 86, bequeathed. From Villa San Martino in Arcore to Villa Campari on Lake Como, from Villa Belvedere in Macherio to the Roman Villa Zeffirelli, the extraordinary real estate properties acquired over the years by Berlusconi are largely historic residences. Their management is the responsibility of Immobiliare Idra, the company controlled by Silvio – his children Marina and Piersilvio owned only 0.5% until their father’s death – for a value of 412 million euros. Extraordinary residences, extraordinary expenses: the management cost is approximately 24 million euros.

Villa San Martino, the Arcore residence purchased in 1973 for 500 million by the Marquise Casati Print

The most famous of Silvio Berlusconi’s residences is Villa San Martino, in Arcore. With Villa Borromeo d’Adda, the municipal seat, and Villa La Cazzola, a private residence, it belongs to the group of so-called delightful villas. Once a Benedictine monastery, it passed into the hands of the Giulini counts in the mid-eighteenth century, who restructured it in neoclassical style. The Villa passed to the Marquises Casati Stampa in the first half of the 19th century. Count Alessandro Casati enlarged the library and hosted his friend Benedetto Croce on several occasions. Upon the death of Count Alessandro Casati in 1955, the property passed to his closest relative. His nephew Marquis Camillo Casati Stampa di Soncino committed suicide on August 30, 1970, after murdering his wife Anna Fallarino and her lover Massimo Minorenti. The property passed to Anna Maria Casati Stampa di Soncino, nineteen years old at the time. According to the law of the time, her properties were entrusted to the guardian Giorgio Bergamasco, while pro-tutor was appointed Cesare Previti. On 26 June 1972 Bergamasco became Minister for relations with Parliament in the Andreotti government, Casati Stampa had already emancipated from the tutorial juridical power with the age of majority at the age of twenty-one, on 22 May 1972.

Anna Maria Casati Stampa, married to Count Pierdonato Donà dalle Rose, then moved with her husband to Brazil and chose her former pro-tutor Cesare Previti as her lawyer in Italy. In 1973 the marquise decided to sell the villa, with its art gallery, library of ten thousand volumes – to take care of which Marcello Dell’Utri was hired as librarian – furnishings and park with stables in which Vittorio Mangano was hired as groom.

At the time it had been valued – for the real estate alone – over 1 billion and 700 million at the time, but was sold in exchange for the figure of 500 million lire in shares with furnishings, paintings and art gallery included. The heiress was unable to monetize these shares, except with an agreement with the same Previti and Berlusconi, who repurchased them for 250 million

The entire property was then valued in the eighties at 7.3 billion lire. In the park of the villa Berlusconi he had a personal mausoleum erected by the artist Pietro Cascella, entitled “The celestial vault”, with niches for himself, his family and his closest collaborators.

Among the latest purchases, Villa Sottocasa in Vimercate

Built at the end of the 18th century and purchased in 2018 for 2.5 million, but to be restored, Villa Sottocasa is owned by Berlusconi through the Brianzadue company, whose real estate portfolio is 60% owned by the former prime minister. The Leader company of Vimercate, of the architect Ivo Redaelli, has in fact sold the north wing of the abode of delight for 2 and a half million euros – the other two wings belong to the Municipality – to a company that can be traced back to the former prime minister. Since last January the company Brianza Due Srl has been involved in the restoration of the facades.

Still in Lombardy, in the province of Monza and Brianza, there is Villa Gernetto, also known as Villa Mellerio or Villa Somaglia. It was purchased in 2007 by Berlusconi’s Fininvest Sviluppi Immobiliari SpA, which in April 2008 started the restoration work with Macherio’s Studio Magnano & Partners architecture firm. Villa Visconti di Modrone, known as Belvedere, is located in Macherio, in the province of Monza and Brianza. As in the case of Villa San Martino, Villa Belvedere is also directly owned by Berlusconi. It is about 6 kilometers from the main residence and was bought at auction in 1988 by the Province of Milan. It is in Macherio that Berlusconi’s ex-wife, Miriam Bartolini (Veronica Lario), lived for a long time before their divorce.

Among the most famous properties of the Berlusconi family there is also Villa Campari, the splendid historic residence on the shores of Lake Maggiore that belonged to Cesare Correnti, a Risorgimento patriot. The villa has direct access to the lake, a neoclassical style and a characteristic circular porch on the ground floor. Splendidly preserved, it is one of the most beautiful historic houses on the Piedmontese shore. Berlusconi bought it in 2008. Then, in the following years, it was the subject of a dispute with Veronica Lario, linked to the couple’s millionaire divorce.

From Palazzo Grazioli to Villa Grande, until 2019 on loan for use to Franco Zeffirelli

After the first headquarters of Forza Italia, in via dell’Anima, and before the last Roman residence – the Villa Grande on the Appia Antica – from 1994 Berlusconi stayed in Palazzo Grazioli, a stone’s throw from Piazza Venezia. Il Cavaliere, however, was only for rent: the second floor of the building – it seems that the rent was 40,000 euros a month – became the headquarters of Forza Italia and the entire center-right, closing the party headquarters in via dell’Anima . The historic building is still owned by Giulio Grazioli Lante della Rovere. In 2021 Berlusconi decided to move to a villa owned by his Dolcedrago company: Villa Zeffirelli, on the Appian Way, purchased for over 3 million euros in 2001 and then loaned out for free until 2019, to Frank Zeffirelli.

Holiday homes: Sardinia, Lampedusa and Antigua

Another symbolic place is Villa Certosa of Porto Rotondo, in Sardinia, Berlusconi’s buen retiro on the Costa Smeralda since the end of the 1980s. It has been rebuilt and expanded over the years. The former premier used it with a free loan agreement with the Immobiliare Idra company, 100% owned by the Dolcedrago company, 99.5% owned by Berlusconi himself. They are 4,500 square meters, 126 rooms and a park of 120 hectares. Heads of government and state have been hosted at Villa Certosa, such as President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair – the iconic shot that immortalized the British premier next to Silvio wearing a bandana – Russian Vladimir Putin and the Spaniards José Zapatero and José María Aznar. In January 2021, a technical appraisal valued the villa at 259 million euros.

Tactile Villa it is located in the hinterland of Porto Rotondo, in Punta Lada, a few tens of meters from the immense park of Villa Certosa. For years it was the buen retiro of Adelina Tattilo, journalist, film producer, feminist and founder of the publishing house of the same name and of the erotic magazine Playmen. The heirs then sold the property, owned by Berlusconi’s Immobiliare Idra for 2.4 million. Villa Due Palme dominates the view in Cala Francese, on the island of Lampedusa. Silvio Berlusconi bought it in the spring of 2011. «I – said the leader of Forza Italia, as soon as he landed on the island – must become a Lampedusian. I logged onto the internet and found a beautiful house in Cala Francese, it’s called Due Palme and I bought it». The villa, 250 square meters, eight beds and a large garden, had been put up for sale online for 1.5 million. After the renovations, in June 2019, for the first time, Berlusconi set foot in the new home.

And then there is Villa La Lampara, Cannes. There are 500 square meters, plus 2 thousand of garden, with swimming pool and sea view, built by the Marquis George De Cueves and then changing hands several times, up to those of Antonia Costanzo, Paolo Berlusconi’s ex-wife, who bought the villa in 2007 with a millionaire loan from Mps. Eventually, one of the former knight’s real estate companies bought La Lampara for 3.55 million.

The “cove of the president” in the Caribbean Sea

The villas – there was talk of seven villas, a sort of Antigua 2 – of Berlusconi in the Caribbean are also known to the news, at the time also the subject of an episode of Report in which financing in the tax haven was investigated. According to Il Fatto Quotidiano, Berlusconi was for a long time looking for buyers to sell his villas and in 2010 he asked Ennio Doris of Mediolanum for help. But the project was blocked after the attention of the press – and the prosecutor’s office – on the 22 million euros that the then prime minister sent to the tropics through his current account of Arner Bank, the highly confidential Swiss bank. The area of ​​the island is practically untouched: the residents renamed the cove “President’s Cove”.

Finally remains engraved in memory la Blue Horizon villa, in Bermuda, also thanks to an image that went around the world: Berlusconi jogging with Letta, Confalonieri, Dell’Utri, Galliani and Bernasconi. All running after the boss and all in white shorts: the daily training wanted by Berlusconi to keep his men in shape.