Portale della cultura italiana

Like gems imprisoned in the rock, the treasures of the area north-west of Florence glitter amidst the urban maze that spreads across the plain and are to be sought in a close, chaotic tangle of streets, buildings, factories and houses. However, after thankless zig-zagging through the 20th-century jungles of the suburbs in the foothills, to arrive at the two magnificent residences of Villa Medici and Villa Corsini at Castello and Petraia, or at the Etruscan tomb of Montagnola and, just a short way beyond, the Ginori ceramics museum at Sesto Fiorentino, has the gratifying tang of some elite and glorious conquest, which pays off for visitors with added interest, transporting them to harmonious pasts where bucolic silences and deep peace are the order of the day, far away from the madding crowds attracted to easy or mass tourism. The 2010 edition of “Piccoli Grandi Musei”, the sixth in the series, has chosen to introduce these five pearls at the gates of Florence, using the inviting title “By way of villas and gardens” (17 June – 14 November) and a solemn promise to astonish visitors with a string of unexpected marvels: furnishings and architecture, marbles and paintings, evergre...