54 House & Garden 
At the southernmost end of the garden is a terrace where one may walk on a sunny spring 
day—much as the Divine Poet must have walked—and enjoy the superb view of the City 
of Flowers spread along the valley below 
THE VILLA DANTE ALIGHIERI 
The Former Home of the Divine Poet Is Still Preserved 
Asa Thirteenth Century Italian Manor House 
ROBERT CARRERE and MORGAN HEISKELL 
ESTLING at the foot of the Fiesole 
hill, completely concealed in an ilex 
wood, stands the Villa Dante 
Alighieri. In this villa Dante lived and 
worked before the years he spent in exile 
from his beloved city of Florence. After¬ 
wards purchased in 1332 by 
the Portinaris, the family of 
Beatrice, the villa has 
changed hands many times 
and now it has passed into 
the possession of Signor 
Bondi. 
Situated on a gentle rise 
of ground, it commands from 
its loggia a magnificent pan¬ 
orama of the distant city. 
On the eastern side is the 
approach to the villa, which 
is quite characteristic of Tus¬ 
cany—one arrives at the door 
opening directly on the street 
called Via Forbid or the 
Street of the Scissors. Be¬ 
yond the vaulted vestibule, is 
the delightful mediaeval cor- 
tile entirely surrounded by 
an open loggia on the second 
floor. The loggia is support¬ 
ed by one of the earliest types of Florentine 
arcade, the stone work painted in the old 
manner. The ceiling of beams and rafters, 
that forms the roof of the loggia, is painted 
in tempera in designs of coats of arms and 
arabesques exactly as they were when the 
ancient place housed the Divine Poet. 
Around the cortile, on the ground floor, 
are many rooms for entertaining. The 
drawing room, formerly the only large room, 
was in Dante’s time the living and dining 
hall combined; since then various rooms 
have been added in each 
epoch and decorated in the 
contemporary taste of the 
age. There is a splendid 
open staircase ascending to 
the floor above where one 
finds today, in addition to 
the rooms that the poet 
used, many others that have 
been built in recent times. 
H o w e v e r , none of the 
changes detract from the at¬ 
mosphere of the 13th and 
14th Century manor house. 
All that was originally part 
of it has been scrupulously 
preserved by the present 
owner, who is celebrated in 
Florence as an authority on 
the art and architecture of 
his country. 
The surroundings of the 
villa consist of a charming 
The loggia on the western side oj the villa opens out upon the old forest of 
ilex, chestnut and oak. It is through this forest that one can approach the 
villa 
