Villa Cetinale
Details
- Type:
- Villas
- Area:
- Sovicille
- Bedrooms:
- 12
- Bathrooms:
- 14
Features
- Air Conditioned
- BBQ
- Daily Cleaning Service
- Dishwasher
- English Speaking Concierge
- Full Staff
- Gardener and Pool service
- Hair dryers in every bedroom
- Luxurious
- Safe
- Satellite TV
- Security/Surveillance system
- Stereo
- Telephone
- Tennis Court and Racquets
- Washer and Dryer
- Wifi Internet
- Wine Cellar
Property Description
Tuscany is home of many fascinating and magnificent estates. Recently we had the privilege of seeing the majestic twelve bedroom air conditioned Villa Cetinale! Located in the Ancaiano district near Siena, this stunning 17th Century Baroque estate was built for Pope Alexander VII. Its phenomenal gardens are amongst the most beautiful in the world and were featured by Edith Wharton in her 1904 book Italian Villas and Their Gardens.
Villa Centinale has an interesting history. It was acquired, in a somewhat ruinous state, by British Viscount Antony Lambton in 1977 – who retired there after a personal scandal in England. For nearly three decades he meticulously restored the villa and nurtured the gardens – creating one of the finest villas we have ever seen.
The villa’s lucky guests have 12 brilliantly appointed bedrooms, each with an en suite bathroom (that is bigger than most people’s living rooms!) to choose from. The villa’s artwork is priceless, the furnishings are staggeringly beautiful and there just aren’t enough superlatives to adequately describe Villa Cetinale! Instead the best way to describe it lies in a question when we asked the villa’s caretaker if guests ever go into town or leave the villa once they get here? “No” she answered without pausing a second, “Why would you leave Paradise?”
Villa Cetinale may be the most beautiful place on the planet to get married!
There are nine double rooms, two twin bedded rooms, one single and a dormitory for 4 children, plus accommodations for extra guests or staff at extra cost. There are twelve bedrooms in all.
There is a large dining room, many common rooms and every room is well appointed and impeccably furnished with the finest furnishings.
There is a games room in the Liminoia annex where there is a Table tennis and foosball tables, and there in the main villa there is a children’s television room with a Playstation and racing seat for Gran Turismo.
The gardens are beyond spectacular. The plan of the Villa Cetinale gardens is in the Giardino all’italiana style, with a strong solo primary axis.
It begins at the lower terminus far below the house, with a gigantic statue of Hercules. The axis extends across the natural and agricultural landscape, and the midway immediate villa surroundings, to its upper terminus, a hermitage Romitorio high on the hill above.
On axis at the front facade of the villa is the Limonaia, a semi-walled potted lemon garden, accented with statues by Giuseppe Mazzuoli (1644-1725) and ‘Baroque style’ topiary. On axis at the rear facade a symmetrical double staircase rises to the primary villa entry, at the piano nobile (‘floor one’) level, following the Roman custom of reserving the ground floor unnumbered for the domestic service uses.
Behind the villa an avenue of Italian cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) defines the axis through gardens and fields to the base of the hill. A significant and very long stone stairway carries the axis up through the hillside’s woodlands, to the focal point of the hermitage tower- which was built on top of the hill for one of Pope Alexander VII’s relatives to live in to serve penance in after killing a person.
From beside the villa a secondary axis extends northeast across a balustraded terrace, and through an olive grove to a very tall masonry bell tower, with clock.
There are several original non-axial elements of the gardens. Northeast of the main axis beyond the bell tower a garden walkway proceeds around a hill, going through the ‘Holy Woods’ with stone statues and sculptures of animals, also by Guiseppe Mazuoli. West across the axis a long looping walkway passes through open woods past a series of religious shrines with statues. Olive groves are also part of the landscape surrounding the villa and long axis.
- Sovicille – 5 Kilometers
- Siena – 14 Kilometers
- Monteriggioni – 15 Kilometers
- San Gimignano – 44 – Kilometers
- Florence – 70 Kilometers
2024 WEEKLY PRICES – Friday TO Friday
6th January – 28th April – € 25.000
28th April – 2nd June – € 38.000
2nd June – 30th June – € 55.000
30th June – 1st September – € 62.000
1st September – 29th September – € 48.000
29th September – 20th October – € 37.000
20th October – 22nd December – € 25.000
22nd December – 5th January ‘24 – € 32.000
Included in the rental price:
- Electricity
- Water
- Air-conditioning in the bedrooms on request
- Bed linen change: twice a week
- Pool towels: daily change
- Toiletries
- Daily private chef for breakfast, lunch and dinner (food not included in the cost) Waiters
- Daily cleaning service
- Turndown service
- Luggage service
- Daily pool cleaning
- Final cleaning
- Any reasonable request considered
Not Included in the price:
- Food & beverage expenses not included.
- The food is € 130 per adult (€ 25 breakfast, € 40 lunch & € 65 dinner). A minimum of € 40 per day per adult is compulsory to pay for food.
- The children up to 10 years old pays 50% of that amount.
- The drinks including coffee and wine have to be paid upon consumption.
- Laundry service on request ad to be paid upon consumption.
- Heating cost € 2.500,00 per week.
- Damage Deposit – € 5.000
- Cooking lessons: Available on request, cost € 500 per lesson (max 5 people per lesson, any extra person: € 120 per person).