“… This hillock is not earth, it is something unreal …

When I come up here, I come because I need a spiritual recreation … “

Enrico Caruso was born in Naples on 25 February 1873 who, with his magnificent tenor voice, will bring the most beautiful melodies of Italian operas to the world.

Acclaimed as the greatest opera singer ever heard between the 1800s and 1900s, Caruso fell in love with a Florentine soprano (Ada Botti Giachetti,) and for her and their children, he chose Florence as his residence.

In 1906 he bought Villa Bellosguardo, in Lastra a Signa before leaving for a long tour in the USA.

At the Metropolitan Opera House in NY, he was so successful that he became the idol of music addicts, not just Americans, of the time. Caruso demanded exorbitant salaries, but was also able to sing for free for Italians who emigrated to America.

His triumphs arose from the interpretations of Radamès in Aida, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Rodolfo in La bohème, Canio in Pagliacci and Alfredo in La Traviata.

Left by Ada (who, increasingly alone, fled with the driver), Enrico Caruso recorded years later a Neapolitan song inspired by his sentimental events: Core ‘ngrato … (Ungrateful Heart)

Lucio Dalla in 1986 was inspired by the last days of life that the great tenor spent in Sorrento before he died. He discovered by chance that he was a guest in the same room in the hotel, where Caruso had stayed and from there he was inspired to write one of his most beautiful songs: Caruso.

The sixteenth-century Villa Bellosguardo (today Villa Caruso), with its Italian garden and monumental rooms, is now a “house museum” that can host musical and cultural events.