Villa dell'Ombrellino

The Villa dell'Ombrellino (today not open to visitors) was formerly called Villa di Bellosguardo and dates back to the second half of the fourteenth century. It belonged to the Segni family for more than four centuries. From 1617 to 1631 it hosted Galileo Galilei. It assumed its current name because of the Chinese iron umbrella that was placed in the garden, overlooking Via Roti Michelozzi, by the owner Countess Teresa Spinelli in 1815. In 1874 it passed to the Zoubows (Maria Nikolaevna Kokoshkin and her husband General Alexey Alexeevich Zoubow, former governor of Saratov, who died here in 1904) and the contiguous Villa della Torricella (adaptation of a pre-existing small tower), a residence that had hosted Ugo Foscolo in 1813, was joined to the Villa dell'Ombrellino. At the end of the 19th century the gardens became romantic parks. In place of the Torricella, which was demolished, the subsequent owner Alice Keppel had the Loggia for Music built. The garden underwent various transformations and enrichments with neo-sixteenth and neo-eighteenth-century statues: in 1926 the architect Cecil Pinsent (1884-1963, he was responsible for the restoration and transformation of Villa I Tatti) transformed it into an Italian garden. It will then pass (1947) to Violet Trefusis (daughter of Keppel) who will make the Villa a destination for intellectuals, aristocrats and illustrious names: Winston Churchill will paint the panorama of Florence from those terraces. Violet died in Villa dell'Ombrellino on March 1, 1972. The Villa later became the commercial headquarters of various offices and companies, including Doney Ricevimenti, until the early 21st century. Then sold, it is now a private residence.