This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

Villa Schifanoia is in Fiesole, on the border with Florence. It was built on the remains of the ancient XV century farmhouse of Villa Palmieri, belonging to the Cresci family. The new villa was originally intended as a place for recreation and pleasure, as the name itself implies (“Schifanoia” would mean “avoiding boredom” in vernacular parlance).

After several changes of ownership, it became the property of Myron Taylor in 1927: the new American owner, US ambassador to the Holy See, stored his art collection in the villa and created the large south garden.
The latter is an Italian garden made of three terraces, with stone stairways bordered by box hedges, a series of small fountains and basins, statues, a small cave decorated with limestone sponges, and, at the bottom, backdrops of cypresses.

Among the famous guests of this property, it’s worth mentioning Giovanni Boccaccio (it is also believed that the company of the “Decameron” took refuge here, during the plague of 1348), and, centuries later, the French writer and playwright Alexandre Dumas father, who dedicated a book to this noble abode.

In 1941, Taylor donated the villa to the Catholic Church, which opened a women’s art institute there for young Americans. The school closed in the 1980s.
Villa Schifanoia is currently the seat of the European University Institute.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)