Villa dell'Ombrellino
Piazza di Bellosguardo 11
tel. +39 055 2335492 / 2335453
This villa, the origins of which date back to 1372, has hosted numerous illustrious personalities down the ages, including Galileo Galilei and Ugo Foscolo.
In 1815 Contessa Spinelli had the garden embellished with a metal "ombrellino" or parasol, from which the villa takes its current name.
It passed into the hands of one of Edward VII's favourites, the beautiful Alice Keppel, in the early 20th century. Architect Cecil Pinsent redesigned a part of the garden as a "giardino all'italiana" in 1926.
The villa's guests have included Anna Cora Mowatt, better known as Mrs. Ritchie, who penned novels and articles on life and events in Florence for the American press, and Charles Eliot Norton, an American student of Italian art and architecture.
Today the villa houses a conference centre.
