Has anyone seen a big house? ... Marcello Mastroianni, on the beach near Fellini's home, in La Dolce Vita. Photograph: Kobal
"It was a mistake, a historic mistake," said Mario Canapini, mayor of the seaside town of Fregene, just outside Rome. "We didn't realise that in that house, the maestro had lived for more than 20 years."
The "maestro" was in fact Federico Fellini, whose villa in Fregene was an untouched corner of Italian cinema history, writes Lucinda Evans from Rome.
Untouched that is, until January 10, when the house was unceremoniously torn down to make way for a new development of terraced houses. As news of the cultural disaster emerged, almost two months later, fears have grown over the fate of other historic villas in the area - among them the erstwhile homes of author Alberto Moravia and screenwriter Ennio Flaiano.
Fellini used the historic pinewood at Fregene, planted by Pope Clement IX in the 17th century, as a set for some of his films including The White Sheik, Juliet of the Spirits and La Dolce Vita. And it was in the now-demolished villa that he lived with his wife and leading lady, the actor Giulietta Masina. Their legendary fish barbecues held there, with the actor Marcello Mastroianni and director Lina Wertmuller mingling with other guests, are remembered to this day. Nearby a film festival is held locally in Fellini's memory every year.
Now the extensive garden where roses and bougainvillea once grew is gone too, along with a beloved pine tree. "Fellini imagined that in there, under the bark, lived extraordinary beings, magical elves," the actor Sandra Milo told the newspaper Corriere della Sera. "He was sure the trees talked to him, that they were saying something."
Fellini died in 1993 and his wife a few months after him. The property was bought by an old school friend, whose heirs later decided to sell it.
"It was all done according to the rules," said mayor Canapini. "The house was not on the list of properties to be protected ... If the previous council had carried out a survey of the area, identifying all the 'historic' houses, this mistake would not have been made. We would have asked the government for the money to buy Fellini's house and probably made it into a museum."
The council would go ahead with the survey, he said, though "unfortunately it's like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted."
