Villa Mangiacane
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Villa Mangiacane is said to have been designed by Michelangelo and although there is no proof of this, the beauty of the building certainly justifies the claim. It is a simple geometric structure, punctuated by a sequence of rusticated stone windows. The magnificent facade has a double loggia, with arches on the piano nobile and pillars supporting architraves on the top floor; from here the view stretches all the way to Florence over the hills and the Arno valley. The 16th century architect, whoever he may have been, positioned the villa so that the center of the upper loggia is aligned with the dome of the Florence Cathedral. The villa’s garden has a collection of South African contemporary sculptures, and some works by the Lithuanian artist Isaac Kahn. His bronze sculptures, all dating to the late 20th century, are stylized human figures expressed in a few essential traits. These forms, at times sinuous, at times abrupt, have been compared to “sculpted music”.
Villa Pimpinelli
A tabernacle on Via di Faltignano marks the entrance to Villa Pimpinelli, which stands on the opposite side of the road. The simple 19th century building is still owned by the family which included the grandmother of the famous Florentine jurist Piero Calamandrei among its members. In the book “lnventario della casa di campagna” Inventory of a Country House, written between 1939 and 1941, Calamandrei describes the summer of 1895 spent on holiday in Montauto, a farmhouse in the woods near the villa. In a dry Tuscan language, which nonetheless betrays emotion, the writer evokes his childhood experiences. He would walk with his mother down a path in the woods which led to the Faltignano villa. In the fields, on the opposite side of the road, his grandfather had created a Romantic park, dotted with fragments of terracotta and marble statues entangled in the vegetation and artificial grottos decorated with mosaics and frescoes. The favorite spot for young boys like himself was the Grotto della Pia, the statue of the ill-fated bride from Siena, suspected of infidelity by her husband and imprisoned, made famous by Dante in the Divine Comedy (Purgatory, canto V, 130-136).
San Bartolomeo a Faltignano
Just before the Faltignano cemetery an unpaved road on the left, marked by two cypress trees, leads to the village of Faltignano. ts name suggests that this land belonged to a Faltinius in Roman times. A church dedicated to San Bartolomeo was already standing on this site in 1177. It was a simple structure with a typical Romanesque plan and a gabled facade. In 1732 Bernardo Marchiani, whose name appears on the inscription on the doorway’s architrave, paid for its restoration. It was restored again after the earthquake of 1895 and parts were rebuilt using the original material.
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Return to San Casciano in Val di Pesa