On the bill of Sant’Apollinare, silhouetted against the gently undulating horizon of the Resole hills, immediately beneath Piazza Mino, Villa it Roseto, with its narrow garden clinging to the steep hillside, offers breath-taking views of Florence and the Arno Valley. A simple, ochre-coloured building, with structure and stone details very reminiscent of traditional Tuscan farm houses, the villa was built by Belgian painter Consuelo de Jevenois between the 19th and 20th centuries, when the hill was inhabited mostly by foreigners. Architect Giovanni Michelucci and his wife Eloisa Pacini came to live here in 1958; they made very few changes, however one was the creation of paved paths through the garden, all leading to and from the villa itself. The spot itself – a spectacular natural balcony, with terraced terrain, the fields full of olive and cypress trees as well as the Mediterranean scrub so typical of the Tuscan hills, are all enclosed by the green perimeter border created by Poncirus trifoliata – evokes a note written by the architect on a drawing in 1944: ” The garden must be “spectacular “; it must be laid out on various levels, in large “steps”, either natural or man made”. In this beloved house, surrounded by the garden of hydrangeas and Mutabilis roses, Michelucci passed away in 1991, at the age of almost 100. He and his wife left instructions to donate their numerous books, drawings and models to the Michelucci Foundation, which preserves the history and work of this great architect, who incoiportated his love of nature and gardens in his creations from the very beginning of his professional career
Ines Romitti