Robin Williams' extraordinary 'Villa of Smiles' is back on the market
Robin Williams' extraordinary Napa estate, which he built a decade ago and dubbed the Villa of Smiles, is back on the market at a big markdown, three months after his death.
The apparently Renaissance-inspired Villa Sorriso (the estate's Italian name) was listed in April 2014 at $29.9 million, but failed to sell. Then in August, the 63-year-old actor/comedian died -- a suicide by hanging, recently released autopsy results confirm.
He died at his home in Tiburon, in California's Marin County, about an hour south of Villa Sorriso.
Williams first tried to sell the Napa estate a couple of years ago at $35 million. He had joked bitterly about how costly his two divorces had been, and told Parade magazine in 2013 why he'd returned to TV for the sitcom "The Crazy Ones": "There are bills to pay. My life has downsized, in a good way. I'm selling the ranch up in Napa. I just can't afford it anymore. ... Divorce is expensive."
The new listing prices the estate at $25.9 million, nearly $10 million less than its original price. (Click here or on a photo for a slideshow of Robin Williams' Villa of Smiles.)
As we reported in our extensive April post, the property includes a number of lovely, even moving, personal features. Perhaps most poignant, especially in retrospect, are three inlaid mother-of-pearl panels in the library: One says Villa Sorriso, one says "Amor vincit omnia" ("Love conquers all" in Latin) -- and one says "Carpe diem," or "Seize the day" in Latin, a phrase that Williams immortalized in "Dead Poets Society":
The home also has a "belvedere" that you reach by bridge from the master bedroom. Belvedere comes from the Italian for "beautiful view"; picture a bell tower without the bell, where you can sit in an open gallery and soak in the beauty of the surrounding landscape.
That land includes a revenue-generating 18-acre vineyard. "To my mind, the grapes -- the vineyard is the key element of the whole property," listing agent Cyd Greer told us, because so few homes in the area can boast "the whole package" of "ultra-premium" vineyards and an extraordinary home.
Greer and Joyce Rey of Coldwell Banker Previews International hold the listing.
