Seven documented centuries
A story that begins with the poet
The villa, on the Camerata hill, is documented as early as the late 1200s: by the early 1300s it belonged to the family of Dante Alighieri, who used it as their country residence — minutes from the city, already in the cool of the hillside. Some scholars also link the place to the Comedy's line: «I was born and raised upon the fair river Arno, at the great villa».
1332
The family of Beatrice
When the Alighieri were exiled in 1302 the villa was confiscated by the Republic; in 1332 it was bought by the Portinari — the family of Beatrice, Dante's guide in Paradise — as a contract in the Florence State Archive reveals. From that time remain the ancient well with its original paving, the Portinari arms carved on the courtyard well, and the 1865 plaque honouring «the memory of the divine poet and his Beatrice».
1945
The restorations, and the art that remains
After the Portinari the villa passed through Florence's great families; in the 1700s to the Bondi, who enriched it with objects from their travels and carried out its first restoration. Wounded by two bombs in the Second World War, it was bought in 1945 by the Counts Rimbotti, who returned it to its former splendour using the original materials. Inside: pietra serena halls with arches and a great fireplace, tapestries from the Brussels workshops, Xavier Bueno's fresco in the Hall of Feasts, and the 19th-century medallions of Dante and Beatrice carved by Duprè beside the entrance.
The setting
Florence, almost within reach
The villa faces Brunelleschi's Duomo from its hillside: from the garden's viewpoints you take in all of Florence from above. It has long been listed as a Historic Residence.