Three years after it sold for a whopping $17.87 million, Gore Vidal’s legendary clifftop home La Rondinaia (the swallow’s nest) is finally opening this summer as the Amalfi Coast’s most exclusive hideaway.

Originally built in the 1920s — and a favorite of Britain’s literary Bloomsbury Group — rebel-author (and original Gay bad-ass) Vidal bought the villa in 1972 and hosted everyone from Tennessee Williams and Rudolf Nureyev to Paul Newman, Hillary Clinton and Brad Pitt on its six levels end endless terraces.

Vidal sold the villa to an Italian hotel man who is now turning it into seven-room hotel — with an option for the super-flush to rent it out as a single home.

Although the project has been notoriously delayed, Conde Nast Traveller’s UK edition confirms the property will be opening during Summer 2009.

Although Vidal is long gone (from the villa), visitors can visit his writing room just as he left it — part of a small Vidal museum — complete with some of the most jaw-dropping views in  all of Italy.

No word yet on price — but if you could rent all seven roomss, dear reader, who would you take along for a week of Ravello R+R?