Villa Arbusto, so called from the toponym of the locality documented since the 1600s, is situated in an enchanting panoramic position on the hill overlooking Piazza S. Restituta, facing the promontory of Monte di Vico, the site of the acropolis of Pithecusae, while a few steps behind the park is the 8th century metallurgical district. B.C. in Mazzola.
The Masseria dell'Arbusto was purchased in 1785 by Don Carlo Aquaviva, Duke of Atri, of an ancient noble family from Abruzzo, who built a country Casino there, the current villa with a large rear garden in which they were located, and still exist , a smaller building for guests, a chapel, a "stove" for the therapeutic use of the hot fumaroles that arise there, a large cistern for collecting rainwater, the "swimming pool" which, in addition to supplying water of the complex, feeds the basin of a graceful fountain.
The villa is depicted in a colored etching drawn by Rev. Cooper Willyams, chaplain of a ship in Horace Nelson's fleet, and contained in his volume "A voyage up the Mediterranean", published in London in 1802.
When the Aquaviva male line died in 1805, the villa passed into other hands and for a good part of the last century it was in the possession of the Biondi family, of Neapolitan origin who moved to Forio d'Ischia, who often lodged guests of rank there.
Several other owners then changed, until in 1952 it was bought by the well-known publisher and film producer Angelo Rizzoli sen. who fell in love with Lacco Ameno, with the reconstruction of the famous thermal baths, the construction of the Regina Isabella, Sporting and Reginella hotels and the arrangement of Piazza S. Restituta, radically transformed the physiognomy of the town.
Due to its new use, the appearance of the eighteenth-century villa has remained unchanged, while inside, with the demolition of the superstructures added by Rizzoli to make it a luxurious private residence, the original layout of the rooms has been restored.
