English Poet

Edward Lear was born in London on 12 May 1812 and loved to travel around Italy very much. He was also from Calabria and Abruzzo.
Villa Tennyson was the second Sanremo residence of the English poet Edward Lear. Famous above all for his nonsense, he settled in Sanremo around 1870, and from the following year he lived in Villa Emily, designed for him by the architect Giovenale Gastaldi, of whom he soon became a friend.
Unfortunately, right in front of the villa was built the Astoria West End hotel, which completely closed the view of the sea. Lear fell into a deep depression and decided to buy a new plot of land above Corso Imperatrice, in front of the Hotel Royal, so that Giovenale Gastaldi built a new house completely identical to Villa Emily: he gave it the name Villa Tennyson, in honour of the beloved English poet, and settled there since 1880.

To those who asked him the reason for the extravagant choice, he replied that only in this way would the beloved cat Floss not feel lost, being already ahead of his time.
In 1881, however, he had his new residence modified and enlarged, and in 1887, following the consequences of the earthquake, he had to make quite important repairs to both villas, of which he kept the property until his death in 1888.

Shortly afterwards, they were sold by the executor of the will: Villa Emily, renamed Villa Verde, survived as a pension until 1952 (the year in which it was demolished) while, unfortunately, Villa Tennyson was only slightly demolished after Lear's death on 29 January 1888.

(Various sources of origin, assembled)