The Place

The atmosphere at Il Palmerino is steeped in over 600 years of history and derived from the numerous people whose lives played out here. Its connection to art from the Renaissance can be traced back to several of its original owners who were involved in the construction of the Cathedral Works, for Florence’s Duomo. Later, it was inhabited by goldsmiths and sculptors who worked at the Medici Court, and in the eighteenth century, it would become a retreat for reflection, thought and study, when the complex was readapted as a small monastery.

 

More recently, in the early twentieth century, the house and garden played host to artists and intellectuals from all over the world, drawn by Il Palmerino’s then-owner, English author Vernon Lee. Its ‘Genius Loci’, or ‘Spirit of the Place’, was safeguarded through the efforts of its successive owners, painter-couple Federigo Angeli and Lola Costa and the whole Angeli family. Today, the couple’s grandchildren continue to preserve the essence of Il Palmerino’s identity, passing on its traditions through the cultural association that bears its name.