Crisanti’s villa and the envy of the web

“What are you going to do with seven bathrooms? No, I mean, seven bathrooms ». Sabrina P., on Twitter, cannot understand the number of toilets available in the mega seventeenth-century villa just purchased by Andrea Crisanti. Who knows why the striking detail is always the variety of toilets. Then of course, there are those who “bought it with Pfizer’s money” and those who joke about “well-paid royalties for the virologists Christmas song.” The trio Crisanti-Bassetti-Pregliasco singing “Sì Sì vax” will remain engraved in our memory. However, the microbiologist from the University of Padua, a well-known face of these two years of pandemic, has become the owner (with his wife, who is head of department in a London hospital) of Villa Priuli Custoza, in Val Viona, province of Vicenza. Historic residence attributed to a pupil of Palladio, “of which I was passionate when I was studying art history in high school,” said Crisanti. Who also explained that he had taken out a mortgage to close the deal, which cost “much less than 2 million euros”, and was forced to justify his financial availability: “I’m a 66-year-old professional, something in life there. ‘I will have earned. To talk about Covid, however, I did not take a euro “. After all, there are few things that trigger the ferocious indignation of the average Italian like the luxury villain bought by the famous person. With an almost visceral difference, however. If the buyer is a Hollywood footballer or actor, resigned envy prevails, almost mixed with admiration for ostentatious wealth, but perceived as legitimate. If the super-luxury house belongs to the politician on duty, open up heaven. At the very least, the suspicion arises of “who knows where he got the money”, topped off with the ethical condemnation of “while the Italians don’t make it to the end of the month.” Of course, there have been epic events, which have helped to strengthen this instinct: it is difficult to forget the apartment overlooking the Colosseum of the former minister Claudio Scajola, paid for, unbeknownst to him, by an entrepreneur. But, even if everything is in order, the politician who buys the mega villa irritates. In the past they were Bertinotti or D’Alema, the last Renzi. The same reaction aroused intellectuals and “professors” (quoted by Salvini). And, for as long as we know they exist, virologists and microbiologists too. Crisanti does not feel bad about it: politics remains, Covid (we hope) will pass.