Slim Aarons • La Dolce Vita I n t r o d u c t io n by C h r i s t o p h e r S w e e t
The dazzling view from the terrace of Il Canile, a beautiful villa owned by Umberto Tirelli and Dino Trappetti, 1980. The luxuriously remodeled villa was formerly the kennels of the neighboring Villa Punta Tragara, hence its name. Here on the terrace, perched as if on the ether, house guests sunbathe while the Faraglioni rocks loom up from the sea far below. Umberto is the owner of Sartoria Tirelli, the foremost maker of costumes in Italy. He worked for some twenty-five years on the films of Luchino Visconti and supplies all the great opera companies in the world. Enjoying a lavish luncheon at La Pigna is a group of restaurateurs from America, seated from left to right: Gilda Cioffi, Mr. and Mrs. Guy Avventuiero, and Gus and Geraldine Pucillo. Renato de Gregorio, the owner of the restaurant, is standing. An array of the local fare fills the table in the foreground.
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Louis Armstrong with the Italian actress Anna Magnani. He wrote of the encounter: “We went from Turin to Rome . . . another sending town . . . we gave three concerts there which really jumped . . . I also had the pleasure of meeting the star of Open City—which I enjoyed very much in New York . . . Anna Magnani is her name . . . Boy can she act . . .”
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Blowing his trumpet while seated on a Vespa, Louis Armstrong with his wife, Lucille, in front of the Roman Colosseum.
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Count Roberto and Countess Maria Teresa Guicciardini Corsi Salviati amid the jumble of tiled roofs of the ancient fortified village of Castello di Gargonza, situated between Siena and Arezzo near Monte San Savino. Dating from the thirteenth century, the village has been restored by the count and is now a cultural and residential center. The countess is the daughter of Marchesa Maria Cristina Ginori TorrigianiMalaspina, of the Ginori porcelain family. Though the Ginoris no longer run the porcelain company, the mother and daughter run G. Ceccherini & Co., a music store that was frequented by Giacomo Puccini and Arturo Toscanini.
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