Gardens and wine in and around the Florentine Hills

Fiesole , Vincigliata, Settignana and the Badia

A wonderful day in the hills surrounding Florence started with a trip to the Villa Medici – the Humanist villa designed by Michelozzo – using the concepts of Leon Battista Alberti – for an ideal suburban retreat for old Cosimo de Medici and his family.

Cosimo il Vecchio had grown attached to the view from his religious retreat in St Jerome’s Monastery  aka S. Girolamo, the home of Venerable Carlo dei Conti Guidi, founder of the Hieronymites of Fiesole (1360) just above the new Villa, where he liked to be able to overlook the beautiful city of Florence as it blossomed under his stewardship – and as you can see the view is still stunning to this day.

 

The Villa remained a Medici property until 1671 when it was sold by Cosimo III who shared the taste of those times for a more Baroque opulence. In 1911 the villa was rented by the recently widowed Lady Sybil Cutting, mother of Iris Origo (ne Cutting) whose home La Foce we had visited the day before. Lady Sybil employed young English architect Cecil Pinsent to develop her gardens to match their Renaissance heritage!

The image below is part of a painting of The Dormition of the Virgin by my favourite fresco painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, which shows not only this Renaissance Villa when it was a new-build on this mountain ledge, but also the Monks going up to St Jerome’s Hut for prayers.

It also shows the inhospitable mountain ledge behind it, which was transformed into the second villa we visited, now home to students of the Georgetown University – Villa Le Balze. 

Villa Le Balze , house and gardens, was planned in 1911 for American Philospher Charles Augustus Strong by Cecil Pinsent .

It name is appropriate as “Balze” is Italian for cliffs and this long narrow Villa was built in the tight space behind the Villa Medici – also enjoying it’s amazing views.

We added a brief unscheduled trip to Villa Schifanoia – one of the many locations claiming to be the site of Bocaccio’s group of youngsters hiding from the Plague in the Decameron.

 

The Villa, now part of the European University, has a name meaning “to chase away boredom” – which should be appropriate for an University!

Next stop Sir John Temple Leader’s Vincigliata – for a trip round this mock medieval castle and gardens and a wine and local prosciutto and cheese tasting. The team were preparing for a huge wedding banquet in the evening so we were very privileged to be allowed into the castle to be shown around when Emanuelle had so much to do – so my special thanks for supporting us!

 

Finally we visited Villa Gamberaia – home of the shrimps in the pools and latterly the reclusive Romanian Princess Gyka also swimming in the pools under cover of darkness – Oh well rather them than me!!