To your right, peeking out from lush greenery, you’ll find a tall, dramatic villa with deep terracotta walls, playful creamy-white trim, and colorful floral details running along the roofline-just look for the building with the tower-like corner and big shuttered windows, rising behind palm trees like it’s on a secret treasure hunt!
Now, take a breath and let yourself drift back to the late 1800s, when Sanremo’s hills were buzzing with new dreams, exotic plants, and a touch of competition over who could build the most grand villa on Corso degli Inglesi. Enter Baron Adolph Thiem, a German baron with a taste for luxury and an art collection that could put most museums to shame-Rembrandt, Van Dyck, you name it! This place, which you see before you now as Villa Virginia, began as his answer to a delightful problem: “I simply don’t have enough room for all my masterpieces!”
So, between 1883 and 1885, thanks to architect Pio Soli, the villa sprang up in an extravagant style-two striking shapes forming a “T,” and a façade so lively it almost winks at you with its painted frieze and intricate cornices. Peek up and you’ll spot the distinguished little tower and balcony, perfect for the baron to scan the horizon-and maybe check if any rivals were building someplace even fancier nearby! Inside, imagine a massive salon where sunlight once poured through a now-vanished glass ceiling, warming the famous paintings and statues as if nature itself applauded their beauty.
But then, the drumbeats of World War I echoed through Sanremo, and the baron, perhaps missing the comforting clink of his art collection, left the city. Many of his treasures followed him out, eventually landing in Berlin’s Bode-Museum. After the war, the villa found new life through engineer Pippo Pedriali, who named it “Virginia” to woo his beloved wife-not a bad anniversary present, right?
Today, the villa’s ornate stained glass and grand staircase remind us of its colorful past. And although art masterpieces no longer fill the rooms, the house’s own dramatic beauty and a little whiff of old European romance make Villa Virginia an artwork all its own. If only these walls could gossip!
