Capri Casa Malaparte
Casa Malaparte was envisioned and built in 1942 on the Isle of Capri by Italian journalist and writer Curzio Malaparte. He was one of the most powerful, independent and influential Italian writers of the mid-20th century. An impetuous man of letters, Curzio Malaparte fell afoul of Mussolini in 1933 and was exiled to a speck of land in the Mediterranean, banishment had a paradoxical effect on him. Upon his release, Malaparte longed for more remoteness and seclusion. After buying a site on Capri’s eastern coastline, Malaparte had the noted architect Adalberto Libera draw up plans for a home, but later threw them out in favor of his own vision—a stolid, prominent form, with a poetic wind break, on top a tapering exterior staircase. Today the dwelling is owned by the writer’s heirs and most easily seen by boat or by revisiting Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 film Contempt, in which the roof provides a sunbathing venue for Brigitte Bardot. The minimalist plinth of the timeless house in C