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This villa was designed in 1911 by the English architect and landscape architect Cecil Pinsent for Charles Augustus Strong (the American philosopher and psychologist); it was built on a very narrow elongated area on a slope of Fiesole hill. The construction works lasted until 1919.
In 1979, the last daughter of Strong, gave the property to Georgetown University respecting her father’s will. Since then, the American university has hosted his students in the villa during their stay in Italy.

THE VILLA AND THE GARDEN

The neo-Renaissance villa is on three floors and stands on a narrow strip of land clinging to the Fiesolano hill. The complex has a monumental garden which is accessed through Via Vecchia Fiesolana. The garden is made of a sequence of green rooms: the first after the entrance is what was called the “orange garden”. In this area, citrus trees were planted, to be later replaced by ivy geraniums hung on metal nets. From there, through two open arches in the west wall, visitors can reach the “winter garden”, built with a formal layout and divided into geometric flower beds edged with boxwood – in the centre, there is a circular stone basin.
Other elements decorating this part of the garden are perennial and seasonal plants, pots of lemons (Citrus limon), and a star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) which completely covers the wall under the balcony.
The perspective axis continues across the villa, ending in a grove made of a series of holm oaks (Quercus ilex) planted in rows and crossed by a path leading to a rustic cave. Parallel to this path runs another one, bordered by iris, lavender and roses, which separates the green space designed by Pinsent from the open countryside.
A pergola of Rosa banksiae on an upper ledge offers a beautiful view of the garden from above. This pergola can be reached via a double-flight stone staircase facing the north side of the villa. Between the two ramps, there is a cave with a sponge fountain, on the sides of which there are two walls decorated with pebble mosaics, with four high-relief medallions with busts – one of the latter is the self-portrait of Pinsent. In the wall above the fountain, inside a niche, there is a statue of Venus.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)