The Villa

The most ancient area of the Villa is from the XIIIth Century, when the Owners, the Tanaglia Family, built a “Gentleman House in the area of Santa Maria in Settignano”, in a location with a panoramic view over Florece, rich in green and blessed by the most suggestive shades of light. In the XVIIth Century, the Cerretani Family, owner of the Villa called “Belvedere”, had it undergo important construction work: in particular, the big interior court was roofed and became the Party Room, tall as two floors. At the end of the XIXth Century, the “Belvedere” Villa was inherited by the Viviani della Robbia Family. In 1882, they rent it out to the famous American writer Mark Twain. He spent quite some time at the Villa, where he wrote the short story "Puddn'head Wilson", a social satire on slavery. In “A Whisper to the Reader”, the very first part of the book, he writes at some point: “Given under my hand this second day of January, 1893, at the Villa Viviani, village of Settignano, three miles back of Florence, on the hills-- the same certainly affording the most charming view to be found on this planet, and with it the most dreamlike and enchanting sunsets to be found in any planet or even in any solar system--and given, too, in the swell room of the house, with the busts of Cerretani senators and other grandees of this line looking approvingly down upon me, as they used to look down upon Dante, and mutely asking me to adopt them into my family, which I do with pleasure, for my remotest ancestors are but spring chickens compared with these robed and stately antiques, and it will be a great and satisfying lift for me, that six hundred years will.”