Natale Labia Museum – Muizenberg

Visit Cape Town whenever you have the opportunity and visit the Natale Labia Museum. Fine furniture and an impressive art col-lection are housed in what used to be called The Fort, former seaside villa of Prince Natale Labia and his wife, Princess Ida Louise. Prince Natale was a between-wars Italian diplomat who worked tirelessly to promote trade and cultural links between his country and South Africa. But Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia in the mid-1930s put an abrupt end to his work. He died of a heart attack in 1936. His widow, daughter of the powerful, wealthy and widely unpopular randlord, J B Robin-son, loaned her father's collection of old masters to the South African National Gallery. A small part (27 works) of the loan was later converted to an outright gift by her son. These, together with some of the original furniture, now fill the ground floor of the museum. The upper floor has been skilfully converted into a temporary exhibition space, lecture room and offices. The building is one of considerable charm and grandeur, commanding magnificent views of False Bay and the distant Hottentots Holland Mountains.