Leaning against the Arno the garden of Villa La Massa

The Arno seems to take a bow in the presence of Villa La Massa in Bagno a Ripoli and its green lawns, soaring poplar groves, totemic trees and flowering gardens. Amidst the gentle slopes dotted with olive and cypress trees, just nestled at a bend in the Florentine river at the foot of the village of Candeli, stands this residence of 13th-century peasant origin, later elevated to the architectural rank of a Renaissance residence with its frescoed ceilings, four-poster beds and ancient terracotta floorboards, around a typically Medicean mansion. Well, at Villa La Massa, you can practically stay inside an authentic Italian garden and even on the upper floor of what was once a mill with a shovel, its façade carpeted with climbing roses, while in front of it stand centuries-old specimens of Liquidambar, Cypresses, Sophora and Platani trees tended with great passion by owner Simona Fontana and head gardener Vincenzo Sarti. In the iris garden, these flowers flaunt delicate pantones, mimicked by blue agapanthus, cream peonies, rosemary hedges and meonias, frolicking with the nearby fruit trees where foxes sneak in early in the morning and pheasants glide by in the evening. The poplar and reed groves, together with the rose gardens, the bamboo grove, and the spectacular spinea shrubs also delight those who choose to stroll in this park that stretches over eleven hectares, and then perhaps go cycling along the embankment that leads to Florence among the waterfalls, bridges and mills. On returning to Villa La Massa, before retiring to the rooms in the old lemon house, one can reward oneself with a cocktail inspired by the Divine Comedy in the elegant Bar Mediceo, and then enjoy the rustic dishes of the Tuscan tradition at the restaurant Il Verrocchio, where Luigi Comencini filmed some parts of the movie Incompreso, or at the Bistrot L'Oliveto where the hayloft used to be, listening to the hooting of the owls and the chirping of the parrots.