Serial killer Andrew Cunanan murdered Gianni Versace on the front steps of the fashion designer’s Miami Beach mansion in 1997, and now those stone steps provide the backdrop for dozens of tourist photos on a daily basis.
But not only can tourists (and fans of FX’s upcoming American Crime Story miniseries, which focuses on the murder) photograph the house, they can stay there overnight. Scroll down for a look inside the boutique luxury hotel known as the Villa Casa Casuarina.
In 1992, Versace purchased the original house for $2.95 million and the Revere Hotel next door for $3.7 million. He spent an astonishing $32 million on renovations that included demolishing the Revere to make way for a pool, garden, and new south wing of the home.
“We actually have preserved what Versace created here and just augmented it with some modern touches for the convenience of our hotel guests and restaurant patrons,” Chauncey Copeland, the hotel’s general manager, told the Associated Press.
Producer Ryan Murphy told the New York Post he couldn’t believe that he received permission to shoot the series there. “I don’t think I could have made the show if I couldn’t have gotten that house,” he said. “There was no way you could build [a set] of it. Two of the rooms were made out of seashells. [Gianni Versace’s sister] Donatella [Versace] took all the furniture and the art when she sold the house, but through pictures we were able to recreate them.”
The designer built an additional two suites in the south wing. Above, the Venus Suite, was where his sister Donatella Versace stayed. Rates for one-bedroom suites today start at $1,199 per night.
The Villa Suite is the Designer’s former room. However, some things did have to change. The secret passageways of his time have been blocked up, while there is no sign of the carrier pigeons he is rumored to have used to send messages to his friends.
Rates for a superior suite like this one starts at $749 a night.
In addition to the guestrooms, it operates the restaurant Gianni’s, which “offers a delicious blend of Italian and Mediterranean food and wine selections.” Decadent dishes include gnocchi di granchio, with New Orleans blue crab, vermouth wine, shallots, parmigiano-reggiano, truffles, and filetto di manzo rossini, with eight-ounce Wagyu filet mignon, pomme confit, grilled asparagus, pan-seared foie gras, and Bordelaise jus.
