Villa I Collazzi

Beautiful and majestic villa on the Volterrana built on a hill overlooking the surrounding valleys and attributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti.

In Scandicci, and more precisely in the nearby hamlet of Giogoli, there is this majestic and incredible villa known as I Collazzi. It is a Mannerist style villa built on a rectangular shaped terrace. The original work is said to have been designed by Michelangelo Buonarroti himself. In any case, the villa was built for the historic Dini family, whose heirs are still the owners of the villa. The building is accessed by crossing a cypress path that was built at the end of the nineteenth century. The garden has a simple layout, structured on two terraces, the first of which coincides with the floor of the villa: it is a huge lawn where holm oaks, horse chestnuts and cypresses were planted in the 19th century. The second terrace, built in the eighteenth century, is located on the south side. There is a formal garden with square-shaped flower beds, where pots of citrus plants find accommodation in the warm season. From here a stepped path unfolds towards the open countryside. An extraordinary panorama !!!

The villa dei Collazzi, currently owned by Bona Frescobaldi and family, is a majestic Mannerist style villa, located on a rectangular terrace on the top of a hill in the municipality of Scandicci, whose project is in all probability to be referred to Santi di Tito of which there is a splendid painting of 1593 in the chapel depicting The Wedding at Cana, starring the then newly married couple owners of the villa. The building, initially belonging to the Dini family and then passed to various owners up to the penultimate ones - the Marchi - who had the major modifications carried out in the 1930s, consisting in the completion of the ancient building which had remained unfinished up to now (the body of the it was not symmetrical and on one side it had leaned against a rustic building that served as a farm) and in the arrangement of the garden by the famous (and then very young) landscape architect Pietro Porcinai, who among other things created in 1938 the quartzite swimming pool that you see in the photo and which has the characteristic of mirroring the facade of the villa. Around the villa there is a well-kept garden organized on two different levels of terracing: many of the plants that surround the building are very old, several holm oaks in particular were planted in the early nineteenth century. The view over the Florentine basin is beautiful: you can also glimpse the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore against the background of the mountains, and in some glimpses it still seems to be at the time when the villa was conceived, between walled streets crowded with olive trees, well-kept vineyards and villas and churches dominating the hills that slope down towards the Arno.

Wonderful place as seen from the photos. The most beautiful location I have frequented as a restaurant. Suggestive, elegant, classy. Eating exquisite, refined. The chef is very good. The waiters are very kind and competent. I highly recommend this I Collazzi bistro restaurant. It remains next to the farm.