Alda: The Lavishly Romantic
On first entering Alda Fendi’s house, visitors might think they have wandered onto the set of Visconti’s film The Leopard. The eighteenth-century Villa Cidonio, once a cardinal’s residence with a tiny chapel, is filled with ornately detailed furnishings in lush, superabundantly decorated rooms.
Alda—along with her eldest sister, Paola—is the fur specialist of the family. Alda’s husband, Dr. Ignazio Caruso, an orthopedist, is the only Fendi spouse who is not involved in the family business.
After acquiring the villa in 1975, Alda challenged her decorator, Cesare Rovatti, to provide the place with an evocative sense of the past and an all-out romantic atmosphere. He preserved the noble proportions of the rooms, their marble-framed doors and antique frescoes, using them as points of departure for his rousingly baroque imagination. With Alda’s zealous encouragement, Rovatti stuffed the rooms with silk damask, brocades, richly embroidered tapestries, Aubusson carpets, and immense sofas of his own design. The result is an extravagant succession of rooms, each redolent with the sensation of vivid splendor.
