Villa Tommasi Aliotti |
| For all its imposing size, this late Renaissance villa has an elegant, compact architecture despite the changes that have been made. Its name is that of the owners, the Tommasi Aliotti, who were one of the most important families in the area. The building, which dates back to the 16th century, was transformed in the mid-18th century into an aristocratic residence, enhanced by a formal garden. In the 19th century Luigi Tommasi made substantial changes that gave the building its present-day appearance, cancelling part of the 18th-century layout, as documented in an old map of the site from the first half of the 19th century owned by the Tommasi-Aliotti family. The villa has a three-part entrance in line with the tree-lined driveway that ends with a large oval pool, probably 19th century in origin.
The Gothic-style lemon house on one side of the villa also dates back to this period. At the back of the building a ring of holm-oaks in line with the tree-lined driveway stretches as far as the boundary wall to the north. This creates two distinct,but perfectly integrated areas: a park to the west and farmland to the east. The park surrounding the building boasts a collection of rare tall trees: firs, horse-chestnuts, hackberries, pines, holm-oaks, sequoias, yews and elms, among which stand various statues and outbuildings. |