Two houses built by Aldo Gucci, son of Guccio Gucci, is on the market for €15 million (£13 million).
Set on Via Pecori Giraldi, one of the most exclusive residential streets in Rome, the estate contains two lavish villas.
Aldo Gucci started building the first in the late Forties, when he relocated to Rome from Florence to help expand the luxury fashion business founded by his father.
Completed in 1951, the primary villa is built in a hybrid Tuscan and British style – complete with bay windows – in a nod to Aldo Gucci’s first wife Olwen Price, who was born in the UK.
The couple lived there with their three sons, Georgio, Paolo and Roberto, building a second villa on the property in the Sixties for them to live in.
For special occasions, the Gucci clan would gather at the main villa, which they called the Family House.
Set over four storeys, the seven-bedroom Family House features a grand entrance hallway with a marble fireplace and an ornate wooden curving staircase.
Archways lead to the first floor bedrooms and en-suites, one of which is clad in pink marble.
All of the interiors have been left as they were when Aldo Gucci designed his home, with crystal chandeliers and antiques, including a rosewood piano shipped over from Paris.
Tapestries and 17th-century paintings still adorn the walls, and the Gucci heirs are willing to negotiate to leave all the furniture in situ for the next owners.
Even the games room contains a marble fireplace.
A lift goes all the way to the top storey, which includes a rooftop terrace with sweeping views over Rome, the centre of which is only a five-minute drive away.
As well as the second mansion on the property, there’s a large L-shaped swimming pool and a poolhouse, and 10,000 square metres of parkland.
“We are looking for an entrepreneur, a family, who can appreciate the Italian mixed English style, and the class and elegance of a piece of Italian history,” said Chiara Gennarelli, the real estate advisor listing the estate with Building Heritage Forbes Global Properties.
“It would be perfect for those who love the green and outdoors without giving up the comfort of a safe, protected area as it is close to the embassies.”
Aldo Gucci was chairman of Gucci from 1953 to 1986, and under his leadership the company expanded into the American market.
President John F Kennedy called him the “first Italian ambassador of fashion” and Jackie Kennedy was such a fan that the fashion house renamed her favourite handbag after her.
The Family House saw decades of drama as the Gucci dynasty both flourished and fell out with each other.
Aldo Gucci fell in love with Bruna Palombo, a shop girl at the Gucci store in Rome.
He had a child with Palombo in 1963, Patricia Gucci, and moved his secret second family to London, then America.
His nephew, Maurizio Gucci, ousted him from the company in the Eighties, and Aldo Gucci spent a year in prison in America for tax evasion.
Maurizio Gucci was assassinated in Milan in 1995 and his ex wife Patrizia Reggiani was convicted of premeditated murder for organising the hit.
The stranger-than-fiction tale of family feuds was immortalised in Ridley Scott’s 2021 film, House of Gucci.
Lady Gaga played Patrizia and Adam Driver was cast as Maurizio.
Aldo Gucci was played by Al Pacino, a decision that infuriated his heirs, who disliked the film’s portrayal of their family history so much they threatened legal action against Scott.
The family said the film was “an insult to the legacy on which the brand is built today” in a statement.
Patricia Gucci was particularly unhappy about the casting of Pacino, calling his portrayal of her father as “fat, short, with sideburns, really ugly”.
The future owners of the Gucci house will be able to buy a piece of this living history, and potentially put their own stamp on it.
While the main villa is pristine, having been restored in the 1990s, the second mansion is ripe for renovation.
“The property has important investment characteristics,” said Gennarelli, adding that the second house could be “divided into apartments and resold, or made profitable by generating an annual rental income.”
It’s been a bumper few years for Gucci superfans with the budget to buy a part of its storied history.
Last summer the Mayfair mansion that Tom Ford ran Gucci from as its creative director was put on the market for £55 million.
