Villa Caruso Bellosguardo

Situated on the hills of Ponte a Signa, Villa di Bellosguardo owes its name to its breath-taking position. In 1585, Abbot Alessandro Pucci that became the owner of the villa decided to create a paradise retreat suitable for religious meditation for himself and his guests. He commissioned Florentine architect and antique dealer Giovanni Antonio Dosio to turn the manor house and its lands into a refined park. The façade, vaults and rooms were frescoed by painter Giovanni Balducci.

Today, the late-Renaissance spirit survives only in the garden. At the end of the nineteenth century, the villa was bought by the Campi family and in 1906 it became the property of famous tenor Enrico Caruso. Caruso was helped by architect Rodolfo Sabatini, who made the bodies of the two preexisting buildings symmetrical and hired the inhabitants of Lastra for these works, who donated a column made of stone to the tenor, which is still visible today, as a sign of gratitude. The villa was furnished luxuriously and the garden was dismantled and rearranged for a theatre stage. Since 1955, the villa, garden, park and farm have been owned by the municipality of Lastra a Signa.