The name is the Italian rendering of Highclere, the English seat of the Earls of Carnarvon: the villa was built in 1874 by Henry Herbert, the fourth Earl, for his son George, a boy of fragile health whom the doctors wanted in the sun and by the sea. That son became the fifth Earl and funded the expedition led by Howard Carter that opened the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. The house stayed with the Herberts for nearly ninety years and became a small literary colony: it was here, in 1937, that Evelyn Waugh met Laura Herbert, who would become his second wife.
What to see
From outside you read the outline of an eclectic residence on two main levels: stone-faced walls, wide windows, terraces hanging over the drop. There are about thirty rooms and the grounds run to more than 35,000 square metres. The room known as the sala del camino was furnished by the set designer and architect Lorenzo Mongiardino. In 1961 Auberon Herbert sold the property to an Italian industrialist; soon afterwards it went to the Agusta brothers, of aviation and motorcycle fame, and Corrado overhauled it, widening the access road and adding a pool, a helipad, a gym and a playground.
The villa is also known for a news story. On the night of 8 January 2001 Countess Francesca Vacca Agusta, Corrado's widow, fell from the garden onto the rocks below; years of investigation, inheritance suits and neglect followed. In 2015 an auction awarded the estate for more than twenty-five million euros to the Russian businessman Eduard Khudaynatov, and since 2022 the property has been listed among the assets frozen by the European Union after the invasion of Ukraine.
Visiting
Altachiara is private and cannot be visited: no tickets, no open garden, the gate stays shut. The best way to see it is from the water, on the boats that link Portofino with Santa Margherita Ligure and Rapallo: the house appears whole above the rock, its park dropping in terraces to the waterline. From land the boundary walls are high and the coast road has nowhere to stop.
Our editors' tip
We take the boat, and ideally the return run towards Santa Margherita: you leave the harbour with the afternoon light on the coast and the villa stands out from the greenery for a good ten seconds. On foot you have to settle for glimpses, because the pines in the park cover almost everything, and it is worth knowing that before going to look for it.