Versace Mansion Open to Public, for $65

If you were ever curious about Casa Casuarina — the Mediterranean villa in Miami Beach once owned by fashion designer Gianni Versace, located along South Beach’s strip at 1116 Ocean Drive, Miami, now you have the chance to check it out for yourself. According to USA Today, for $65, you can tour the famous mansion and see how Versace took the $1 a night hostel and turned it into an opulent mansion. Versace’s touches include:

• A pool made of a million Italian mosaic tiles and 24-karat gold pieces (photo below courtesy USA Today).
• The Medusa head logo, which is part of the Versace brand and appears throughout the villa in gold, on gates and railings, in stone mosaics even on shower drains.
• A marble toilet with a gold seat (one of three in the world).
• Tapestries, sculptures, chandeliers, and paintings.

Sorry, the upstairs is off limits, unless you can pay anywhere from $1,200 to $10,000 a night to stay where celebrities such as Madonna, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Cher, Elton John, Bill and Hillary Clinton have all camped out.

Sadly, Versace was shot and killed on the steps of this home in July 1997, but the beauty and fashion sense he lived by is still alive and evident in Casa Casuarina.