The city of Sierra Madre, a tiny hamlet situated about seven miles east of Pasadena, is often called “Mayberry,” a reference to the small town at the heart of “The Andy Griffith Show.” Quaint, charming and altogether sleepy, the borough famously lacks even a single traffic light, with the downtown consisting of a sole block of storefronts. Seemingly frozen in time from a much simpler era, the area is known for its Anywhere, U.S.A. appeal, yearly Wistaria festival, traditional homes . . . and an Italian villa? Yes, as incongruous as it may seem, tucked into the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountains sits a gorgeous Italianate estate that looks ripped right off the shores of Positano!
A longtime favorite of location scouts, the property is currently being featured on the second season of “The Morning Show” as the supposed Lake Como villa where disgraced former news anchor Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) is hiding out after being fired following allegations of his continued sexual abuse coming to light.
Showrunner Kerry Ehrin told The Hollywood Reporter that banishing Kessler to Bel Paese felt like a natural fit for the Apple TV+ series’ sophomore season, which takes place from January to March 2020. “Seeing those beautiful films from Italy of people singing on their balconies, because that happened right before COVID hit here, seemed like a great place to tell a little bit of the pre-story of COVID. Also, you think about disgraced film directors who go live in Europe. And I thought that all seemed to fit into the story that we were telling.”
With travel restrictions and pandemic safeguards firmly in place at the time of filming, venturing to Northern Italy for the shoot was not a viable option. So the production team instead chose to capture Mitch’s scenes much closer to home, utilizing some carefully crafted CGI to convincingly fake Los Angeles for Italy.
Downtown L.A.’s historic Pico House pops up as the piazza where Mitch is accosted by a young tourist for spoiling her gelato in episode two, “Just Like the Flu.” (The same locale also stood in for Bourbon St. in “The Morning Show’s” season two premiere.) The former anchor grabs a drink and watches a soccer match at Mediterranean restaurant Le Grand, also in DTLA. And the stunning cliffside dwelling where Mitch spends most of his days is Sierra Madre’s famed Villa del Sol d’Oro, located at 675 W. Highland Ave. In real life, the singular property is part of Alverno Heights Academy, a private Catholic school serving students from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade. (Please remember this is an active learning institution. Do not trespass or disturb the students in any way.)
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake Villa del Sol d’Oro was originally built as the private home of New York physician Walter Jarvis Barlow and his wife, Marion Brooks Barlow, who moved to Southern California in 1897 after the former was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Finding the temperate weather miraculous for his health, Barlow opened two sanatoriums in the area to help fellow sufferers battle the disease.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake Following a vacation to Italy in 1924, the couple hired prominent architect Wallace Neff to build them a Tuscan-inspired estate on a secluded 13-acre parcel of land they owned on the western edge of Sierra Madre. His design, a two-thirds scale replica of Florence’s Villa Collazzi, was completed in 1928. The Los Angeles Times describes the luxe property as such, “Neff’s copy was replete with a tower and an arcaded courtyard overlooked by colonnaded porches. Included in the design was a hand-carved caduceus – the serpent-and-staff symbol of the medical profession – over the mantel and three vaults in the basement: one for jewels and other valuables, one for medicine, and one a wine cellar hidden behind a vault door, the perfect Prohibition hideaway.”
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Image Credit: Villa del Sol d'Oro The massive estate also boasts upstairs and downstairs ballrooms, a library, a formal dining room, multiple fireplaces, a formal entrance hall and barrel vault ceilings. The surrounding grounds are an exquisite mix of mature foliage, sparkling fountains and grassy expanses.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake The Barlows dubbed their new residence Villa del Sol d’Oro, which roughly translates to Manor of the Golden Sun. The couple enjoyed many happy years at the estate, throwing lavish parties, hosting fundraisers, raising their three children and tending to their beloved dogs.
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Image Credit: Villa del Sol d'Oro Dr. Barlow passed away in 1937 and Marion continued to live on the premises until 1942, when she sold the property to the Sisters of St. Francis for $28,500, roughly $478,000 in today’s dollars. The estate served as a convent for a time before being turned into Alverno Heights Academy in 1960. Several buildings have since been constructed on the grounds, but Villa del Sol d’Oro, which is a Sierra Madre Historical Landmark, remains untouched, looking much the same as it did when the Barlows called it home.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake As noted on the school’s official website, “Today, the Villa del Sol d’Oro serves as an important part of Alverno life. It is not uncommon to find the photography class taking pictures on the terrace or find a creative writing class creating a story about one of the Barlows’ many parties. Alverno’s two choirs, Concert Choir and Alverno Singers, practice upstairs, and the upstairs ballroom is perfect for our pilates class. Additionally, the Villa serves as the location for Alverno’s Winter Formal; our annual Christmas Candlelight Celebration; and of course, it is the perfect location for the Festival of Haunts.” And the estate is also a popular filming site, a go-to spot for productions with scripts that call for a European manor.
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Image Credit: Apple TV+ To create the illusion of the property’s waterside location on “The Morning Show,” executive producer/director Mimi Leder hired a team in Italy to shoot drone footage of the real Lake Como which was then digitally combined with aerial shots of Villa del Sol d’Oro.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake Aside from the faux lake views, little of the site was changed for its cameo.
Even without the idyllic cliffside location, the property would be an ideal residence for most, but that is not the case for Mitch. Leder told Variety, “He’s in a very dark place. He’s in exile figuratively and literally. He’s in an incredible villa, but he’s in a prison of his own making. He’s lost everything, and we really wanted to explore that — and explore the idea of how you must live with your sins, how this guy is trapped with the consequences of what he’s done.”
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Image Credit: Villa del Sol d'Oro The series also makes use of the Villa’s striking interiors, including the circular formal entry hall which boasts a curved staircase and checkered flooring, two Wallace Neff design hallmarks.
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Image Credit: Paramount Pictures Studios Other productions to feature Villa del Sol d’Oro include the 1981 camp favorite “Mommie Dearest” in which it portrays the convent where Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) sends her teen daughter Christina (Diana Scarwid) after she is caught in flagrante with a boy.
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Image Credit: New Line Cinema Ivy (Drew Barrymore) and Sylvie (Sara Gilbert) go to school there in the 1992 thriller “Poison Ivy.”
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Image Credit: Geffen Records The Villa is the site of Axl Rose and Stephanie Seymour’s wedding reception in Gun N’ Roses 1992 music video for their hit song “November Rain.”
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Image Credit: CBS During the fifth season of “Beverly Hills, 90210,” the property masks as the headquarters of the New Evolution cult which Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) joins.
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Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures It plays the Chechen mafia safehouse, said to be located outside of Trieste, Italy, that Lt. Col. Austin Travis (Steven Seagal) infiltrates in the opening of the 1996 action movie “Executive Decision.”
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Image Credit: WarnerVision Entertainment The Villa appears as the interior of the American Embassy in Paris, where Ambassador Edward (Peter White) hosts his granddaughters, Mel (Mary-Kate Olsen) and Ally Porter (Ashley Olsen), in 1999’s straight-to-video “Passport to Paris.”
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Image Credit: MGM Before heading off to Harvard, Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) lives there with her fellow Delta Nu sorority sisters in the 2001 comedy “Legally Blonde”
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Image Credit: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures The property’s rear courtyard was used for many scenes involving Anthony P. Grove High School, which Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) and her friends attend in the 2001 movie “The Princess Diaries.”
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Image Credit: FX And it again portrays a Lake Como villa, this time the spot where Donatella Versace (Penélope Cruz) lives in the final episode of “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” titled “Alone.”