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La villa, situata nella parte
antica di Anacapri,
risale al XVII secolo.
Colette’s villa, located
in the old part of Anacapri,
dates back to the 17th century.
opere come Ces Plaisirs… e Chéri raggiungono
diverse migliaia di copie, mentre
i suoi servizi giornalistici sono attesi
da sempre più numerosi ammiratori entusiasti.
Nel luglio del 1915 torna in Italia, questa
volta come inviata speciale del giornale
Le Matin. Da Lugano raggiunge
Venezia e successivamente Roma. Come
nella sua prima visita, continua ad annoiarsi.
Trova la città stranamente ferma
nel tempo e lontana, anche allora
che si era in tempo di guerra. Decide, allora,
di ritornare a Capri. Qui raggiunge
Anacapri e va direttamente a via Timpone,
dove contratta l’acquisto della casa
scoperta cinque anni prima.
In poche settimane i vecchi muri dalle
volte a vela riprendono vita. Colette
adesso è ricca ed è tra i più grandi
▼
both male and female lovers
after her relationship with
Missy broke up.
After losing her amour, Colette
found herself having to earn
her living, and decided to
embark on a career in the
theatre, performing as a
dancer and mime at the
leading Parisian music halls,
together with the already
famous Polaire. During those
years she promoted the myth
of herself as a liberated
woman, who shared herself
with many lovers, in the belief
that “the senses are a source
of power in the human body.”
And she unashamedly showed
off her own body, even
exposing her breasts,
welcoming “every kind of
forbidden experience” and
creating a scandal.
Her visit to Italy in 1910
marked a turning point and the beginning of a
new stage in her life.
The trip was a gift from her young admirer
Auguste Heriot, son of a very wealthy
Parisian family that owned the Grand
Magasins du Louvre. Heriot had courted her,
invited her to the best restaurants in Paris and
showered her with gifts, and now he hoped to
win her heart forever by inviting her on this
holiday.
They had just arrived in Italy in mid-July,
when Colette was informed that her divorce
had become final. Now, after years of being
eclipsed, she was free not only to reveal that
she was the author of the Claudine series, but
to publish under her own name Le
Vagabonde, the novel that was serialized in
the magazine La Vie Parisienne.
She was bored during their stay in Rome,
finding the city empty and too quiet. She
spent whole afternoons walking her dogs in
the Villa Borghese or on the deserted slopes
of the Palatine Hill. To her, the city seemed to
be asleep, despite its myriad colours and
atmospheres. So she decided to go south,
and Heriot followed her reluctantly.
In November, they reached Naples and the
Amalfi coast, from where she sent brief letters
home: “My dear Mother, we are having lunch
in Positano, in a country that is too beautiful to
be true.” And the next day: “I was dazzled
when I arrived here. I have to confess that the
Bay of Naples lives up to its reputation.”
If truth be told, the journey tired her and she
experienced considerable discomfort, but the
constant discoveries, the light, the scents and
the uncontaminated scenery captivated her
senses and her mind. She wrote few notes,
sent only short messages to reassure her
mother and “put up with” her dispirited travelling
G.B. BRAMBILLA - NERI
companion’s advances. In actual fact, her young
and inexperienced beau bored her, as she
confided to her friend Léon Hamel: “I’m never
going to manage to write a letter. Today boat,
carriage, boat, storm.” In other words, it was a
“tour de force” with a friend who was no fun.
Despite the unpredictable weather, the rain
and the rough sea, she decided to go on to
Capri. She didn’t have a pleasant trip, because
the rocking of the boat made her seasick. But
when she sailed along the coast of the island
of Procida, she forgot everything and went into
raptures over the magnificent gardens that
were “so old, and filled with roses and orange
groves”. But the sea got rougher and she
started feeling seasick again. Finally they
docked at Capri. Colette was completely spellbound
by its beauty. She was seized with
tremendous energy, and in just a few days she
had seen everything, travelling the length and
breadth of the island without stopping. She
wanted to see every single thing, immerse
herself in the island’s atmosphere, get to know
its history, and the people. She became more
and more excited, and went to visit one of the
now legendary sites: “I am off to the Blue
Grotto, which you go into through a tiny
entrance and where everything is illuminated
by a phosphorescent and unforgettable blue
light,” she wrote, enthralled. The blue island
had captured her heart for ever.
Colette then started going for long walks along
the more isolated, quieter roads. And it was at
Anacapri that she found her new house. In the
street that is now known as Via Timpone, she
spotted some old eighteenth-century buildings
that were part of the San Michele monastery
complex. Colette fell in love with the place at
first sight, but told no one how much she
wanted the property, not even her increasingly
miserable and desperate companion.
Her stay on Capri ended soon after, as did her
liaison with Heriot – which had never really
come to anything – whose character she
described most insightfully to her confidant
Hamel: “My young companion sends his
greetings. He’s very kind when he’s alone with
me, but he’ll never be happy; it’s as if his
personality were rooted in sadness.”
When she returned to Paris in December she
met Henry de Jouvenel, co-editor of the
newspaper Le Matin and her future husband.
She married him in July 1913, three months
after her beloved Sido died. They had a baby
girl, who was named after Colette’s mother.
Colette was now becoming the leading light of
Parisian literary circles. Her books, including
the Claudine series and new works such as
Ces Plaisirs… and Chéri, sold thousands of
copies, and her newspaper articles enjoyed an
ever-wider enthusiastic readership.
In July 1915 she returned to Italy, this time as
Le Matin’s foreign correspondent. From
Lugano she went to Venice and then on to
Rome, where she was bored again. She felt ▼
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