Casa Pertini Voltolina

An apartment hidden among the rooftops of Rome that still preserves the spirit of one of the most beloved couples in the history of the Republic, Sandro Pertini and Carla Voltolina.

A staunch anti-fascist and partisan, then a founding father of the Italian Republic, deputy, senator and president of the Chamber of Deputies, Sandro Pertini was elected president of the Republic in 1978, at the age of 82. However, he chose not to move into the rooms of the Quirinale reserved for the highest office of the state and his family, but to continue living with his wife at number 86 Piazza della Fontana di Trevi, in a rented attic inside Palazzo Castellani, built in the 19th century by the famous collector and goldsmith Augusto Castellani.

It was here, in the rooms on the fifth floor of the building overlooking the Trevi Fountain, that the former president died on 24 February 1990. Cultured, intelligent, independent and unconventional, Carla Voltolina was twenty-five years younger than her husband, whom she married in June 1946, a few days after the institutional referendum to choose between monarchy and republic. She also continued to live in the house until her death on 6 December 2005, at the end of an intense and free life – a young protagonist of the clandestine struggle of the Resistance as a partisan courier, then a journalist and, in her later years, a psychotherapist.

The house remained closed for twenty years and reopened its doors in 2025 thanks to an initiative promoted by Stati Generali del Patrimonio Italiano in collaboration with Roma Capitale, the owner of the property. Today, it is a place of remembrance and encounter. A statue depicting Sappho, protected by a small iron fence in the entrance hall, welcomes visitors to the building. Inside the residence are on display furnishings, documents, photographs, books, works of art, memorabilia and personal items, including Pertini’s beloved pipes, among which are those donated by Enzo Bearzot (coach of Italy’s 1982 World Cup-winning team) and trade unionist Luciano Lama.

In addition to the bedroom, living room, private study and library, the tour includes the “Terrazzo del Tricolore”, an exclusive terrace overlooking the Quirinale Palace and some of the city’s most evocative sights, from the Vittoriano to the Gianicolo, from the Pantheon to Villa Borghese. During his seven-year term as head of state, the Italian flag on the terrace signaled the presence of President Pertini in the house: when he returned home in the evening, an attendant would go up with him and hoist the flag, which was then lowered in the morning before he left.