MIAMI BEACH, Fla. • For years, the iconic South Beach mansion best known as the place Gianni Versace lived and died was open only to the privileged few.

His celebrity friends stayed so often, rooms were outfitted with them in mind. After Versace’s murder and the house’s sale, it become home to another mogul with A-list friends.

But, slowly, 1116 Ocean Drive has opened its doors, first as an invitation-only, private club, then to nonmembers who could stay in its ornate rooms, and now to the masses – or at least anyone willing to plunk down $65 for a tour.

“It was just kind of a domino effect,” said Elisa Brinkworth, a spokeswoman for Casa Casuarina, as the 26,000-square-foot estate is called. “The more people you let in the more that wanted to come in.”

The possibility of touring the villa and enjoying a meal there afterward – or if you’re lucky enough, to stay in one of its 10 suites – doesn’t come cheap. But it offers visitors a glimpse of a truly special place. Outside, tourists flock to the cast-iron gates, taking pictures all hours of the day.

Pass through the limestone arch, into the courtyard of Casa Casuarina, and the fuss all makes sense.

Every inch of this place, every detail, is full of thought and history and detail. And yet it feels intimate and generally not over-the-top.

Modeled after Alcazar de Colon, the Dominican Republic house built by Christopher Columbus’ family in 1510, Casa Casuarina is a three-story, Mediterranean-style home surrounded by a high wall.

It was built in 1930 by Standard Oil heir Alden Freeman. Versace bought it in 1992, along with a hotel next door, and did massive renovations.

Versace’s touches are everywhere, often in the form of his Medusa-head logo, in gold on gates and railings, in stone mosaics, even on shower drains.

Telecommunications mogul Peter Loftin bought the home in 2000 and has slowly made the estate more public while maintaining all the Versace touches.

The home is full of tapestries, sculptures and paintings. The smell of fresh flowers and sound of classical music fills the air. The roughly hourlong tour includes the central courtyard, dining room, lounges, the pool and a look at a marble toilet with a golden seat, billed as one of only three in the world.

Upstairs is off-limits to tourists. To get a glimpse, you must be a club member or a paying guest. But it, too, is stunning and steeped in a history.

There’s the bathtub – the only one in a house full of showers – put in for Madonna.

There’s the uppermost area of the house, the observatory, where Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes reportedly enjoyed a three-hour dinner before getting engaged. There’s Versace’s sprawling cedar closet, one filled more recently, the host says, by Paris Hilton. The name-dropping here doesn’t stop.

Three of the 10 rooms go for $1,200 during the peak winter season, plus 13 percent tax and 22 percent service charge. The others climb in price, up to the owner’s suite, which goes for $10,000 nightly. Prices are cheaper amid summer heat, and for members.

IF YOU GO

Casa Casuarina: Gianni Versace mansion, 1116 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach; www.casacasuarina.com or 305-672-6604. Call for tour reservations. Tours typically offered every other day during the peak tourist season, with times varying morning and afternoon.

Cost: $65. Those who take the tour can enjoy breakfast or dinner at Loftin’s 1116 Ocean, the in-house restaurant, at an additional cost.

Photo by

Eric Risberg