Inside 'Orgy Island' where aristocrat's sex parties eventually ended in murder

05 November 2023 , 13:00

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Aerial top view of a deserted island with white boat. Rocky shore of Zannone island near Ponza, Italy. Blue clear water on sunny day. 02

A deserted Italian island has a secretive past filled with orgies, lavish sex parties, murders and suicide.

Zannone, which sits off the west coast of Italy between Naples and Rome, has a dark history. The island has just one illegally constructed mansion, which was home to aristocrat Casati Stampa and his wife Anna Fallarino until 1970. Former fisherman Giorgio Aniello spoke about the expansive - and now derelict - cliff-top villa overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea.

He told CNN: "See that white colonial villa up high there, that's where the Marquis Casati Stampa held lavish sex parties." Now a self proclaimed tour guide, Giogio takes groups of tourists on boat trips across to the island. As well as showing off the island's natural beauty, he tells the sordid history of the marquis and his actress wife.

"He was a lewd man, a voyeur who liked to watch and photograph his starlet wife get kinky having sex with other younger guys," he said. "Then one day he got fed up of the threesome, shot the two lovers and killed himself." According to rumours, the villa also featured a "hidden mirror room" to spy on intimate sex sessions.

Former caretaker Salvatore Pagano said guests drank heavily and would often be spotted skinny dipping in the numerous Roman pools. Mr Pagano added: "The villa was a hot jet-society get-together. It was crazy here." The scandalous couple were well known among residents on nearby Ponza island, but no-one spoke out back then, despite it being dubbed 'sex parties isle'.

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Back in the 70s the Italian newspapers raced to publish the details of the couple's death, using extracts from the marquis 'green velvet diary' which he had written in detail about his wife's trysts with other men. They also took their pick of more than 1,500 X-rated photos of Anna and others which were locked in the marquis' desk drawer. Trips to the island are now filled with tit-bits about the marquis and his dark past, while visitors can take a dip in the same pool Anna used to frolic with her lovers.

Kelly-Ann Mills