montecchioVilla di Montecchio was originally a holding of the Ticci. In 1740, the Ticci line ran out of male descendants and Montecchio, together with Palazzo Malaspina in San Donato, passed to the Malaspina family, then to the Torrigiani through the marriage of Filippo Torrigiani to Cristina Malaspina. A plaque inside the little chapel commemorates the villa’s complete reconstruction in 1887. Anna Fry, wife of the Marquis Carlo, Mayor of Tavarnelle and brother of Pietro, Mayor of Florence, wanted to rebuild the villa and fit it with modern commodities. An American from Philadelphia, she was well known for her service as a Red Cross nurse during the First World War, and lived in the nearby Villa di Spicciano. The new building is sober, almost cubic, with windows and doors framed in pietra Serena stone. Its facade is decorated with the Torrigiani coat-of-arms. The farm retains its magnificent original cellars, probably Medieval, which occupy a vast underground area. Next to the villa is the rural complex called La Papessa, or the Lady Pope, already mentioned in late 16th century documents, probably named after an influential woman farmer who once lived there.

A Note on Christoph Markus Pommer
The Montecchio kiln is the studio space of the German sculptor Christoph Markus Pommer. Born in Donauworth to a family of sculptors, he settled in San Donato after teaching in Florence’s Academy of Fine Arts. His work, made of Impruneta clay, bronze and wood, can be found in private collections and in public squares of German cities, such as Strubing and Essen. His preferred medium is terracotta, which he paints with weather resistant acrilics, often highlighting his figures’ faces with precious gliding. The Greve municipality has commissioned a group of five six-metre-tall stele, “l Custodi della Terra”, “The Guardians of the Earth”, which will soon decorate piazza delle Cantine in Greve.

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