duffys in Italy: Apr 16, 2011

I was kindly invited by Nancy, a retired principal, who is staying in Piazza Santa Croce area and has been coming to Florence yearly for the past 10 years (!!) to go on a tour of the La Pietra estate yesterday. Tours only occur on Fridays by appointment and she said I wouldn’t want to miss it. It turned out to be one of those beautiful, clear cool days that the Italian guide said only occur with the tramontana (winds out of the north from the mountains).

This is a lovely villa from 15^th century Florence (then, actually the countryside) that was bought in the early 1900s by the Acton family. Arthur was a Brit and Hortense was the daughter of a very wealthy Chicago banker. Nice combination: Brit with exquisite taste and pedigree funded by American banking money. Sir Harold Acton was one of their two sons…the other son died in WWII and Harold inherited the property. When he died in 1994, he bequeathed the property and 110 million to New York University to maintain in its exact state, inside and out. Our Italian guide told us that it probably would have fallen to complete ruins if he left it with the Italians, since there are no tax breaks with inheritances or not-for-profits and the Italians have a ton of “other” buildings and art to keep up with. She said many buildings go to ruin here for that reason. The Actons had acquired several villas on the surrounding properties and those are used for NYU students who study abroad at the NYU campus. Sometimes, visiting professors, etc. stay in the upstairs' rooms of La Pietra. We were told yesterday that over 80 American universities have presences in Florence! We couldn’t take pictures inside but I will say this is one place to see inside and out—the original villa belonged to one family during Renaissance times and then was bought by the Caponi (=castrated chicken in Italian) family and their coat-of-arms is still seen in one of the sitting rooms! However, Hortense (daughter of very wealthy Chicago banker) liked the Medici coat-of-arms since they were also bankers and there are several of these displayed throughout the house. What is interesting is the eclectic combination of medieval and early Renaissance to high Renaissance art that the older Actons collected.

Apparently, Renaissance art really didn’t have much of a price tag until about mid-20^th century and a number of British and American collectors made some very fine purchases. The guide said that in the early 1900s the Italians were clearings out villas, convents, churches, etc. that were no longer inhabited to make schools, apartments, etc. There was an abundance of cheap art. The villa was occupied by the Germans during WWII and Harold’s mother was imprisoned and then went to Switzerland and then recovered the villa after the war. The villa had some of the old red-tiled Tuscan floors plastered over and then drops of paint applied and varnished to create the “alla Veneziano” floors that look like the precursor of present-day linoleum! There is an eclectic mixture of carved wooden holy figures, paintings, even crèche pieces from Naples (which is famous for crèches…we were in Naples last weekend and I promise to post something shortly on that visit). There is a grotto right outside one of the studies…grottos became popular here after the Medicis had one built off the Boboli gardens. They are pretty macabre looking with plastered over shells, etc covering walls and ceiling and usually with some type of fountain—apparently to recreate something from Nero’s villa in Rome which was discovered buried under sand in the 1500s. There are statues and tapestries and paintings as well as collections (Chinosie as Hortense loved Oriental art) and apparently upstairs there are costumes that they collected for their “theme parties.”

Our guide said, their son Harold spent his life as an “esthete” keeping up the family property…however RWB Lewis said that sir Harold was a respected author and poet. I read that DNA testing has revealed that Sir Harold (who never married, had no children) actually had an illegitimate half-sister and her family is contesting the estate. Oh, the lifestyles of the rich and famous. We saw the pictures of Princess Di and Prince Charles on one of the tables…they spent a week of their royal honeymoon at La Pietra.

Outside there is a commanding view of the countryside…and I mean commanding, especially in the spring. They employ 8 full-time gardeners year round (and 4 extra in summer) to keep the gardens in the same condition they originally were when the Actons lived there. NYU even imports water in to maintain these (they are apparently against disturbing the property in any way, including digging for a well…). The budget for the garden is far beyond the budget used for maintaining the villa! The Actons stipulated pink roses and there are only pink roses on the property…the guide says they wanted to create an Italian garden but it really is a British garden. There are “14 shades of green” in this garden and it was meant to have outdoor rooms and even an outdoor green theater. It is absolutely gorgeous and well worth a visit!