How Did The Villa Maddalena Come About?
I am often asked this question. The “Villa” is actually a compilation and melding of several structures from different eras. I will try to describe what I have been able to cobble together about this history.
When Signora Guazzi passed away in 1995, she bequeathed her residence and those of her long-time employees, Gigliola and Lisa, to her 6 nieces and nephews ~ 4 apartments, cantina spaces, garages, an abandoned olive mill, a closed foundry, a former car repair shop, gardens and storerooms. The heirs were not quick to decide among themselves what they wanted to do with their inheritance. Ultimately, it seems that they apportioned the square footage equally among themselves and then put together the square footage of the 3 heirs who wanted to sell, the western section of the entire holding, and offered that for sale. We became aware of it through my friend in the village, a painter, who had exhibited her work in one of the street-level spaces.
My former husband and I toured what was for sale, and the adjoining apartment, also which was not for sale and peered into the garden and ground floor spaces, which were also not for sale. After a couple of months of working with the floor plans we declined to purchase it, not being able to make the floor to floor elevations work to create one home relating to the garden, using the spaces well and working around Gigliola and Lisa. Displacing them was, for us, not an option.
A couple of weeks later, agreeing we had nothing to lose by asking, we asked to buy the other portion of the inheritance, to the west ~ only one habitable apartment and all the miscellaneous spaces, a total of approximately 5,000 square feet, we learned later. They accepted our offer and we purchased what you now see, never having actually been into well over half of it. There were several rooms that didn’t even have doorways! You had to use a ladder!!
What became Villa Maddalena in 2002 was actually 3 separate buildings or portions of buildings. If you picture a pound cake and imagine buying slices ~ the 3 shares of the 3 heirs who wanted to sell.
First, a ‘slice’ of the house next door to the west. This house appears on a village map dated in 1225, so it was built sometime before that date. There are no buildings shown between this building and Mannuccio’s villa to the east. This was a ‘slice’ of a ‘fine house’ with terrazzo floors and frescoed rooms with coved plaster ceilings. The Fresco Room in The Villa is an example of this early 1800 style. Not really a fresco, which is applied to wet plaster, the painted trompe l’oeil decoration is an art form which disappeared under layers of paint all over Europe. Luckily, the first coat of paint in the fresco room in the Villa was a calcium-based one, which dissolved easily with weeks of misting with warm water.
The main house, the stone building that is on the street, has floors in the upstairs that have a chinaprese finish. This was popular in the 1500’s. It involved following a Florentine style of decorating. This fad created a glistening, seamless floor finished in a Chinese red. The handmade terra cotta floor tiles which could have been laid a hundred years earlier were skim-coated with a fine cement-like material to hide all the joints. This was then stained with the deep red. It was then heavily waxed and continuously waxed and buffed to create the desired luster. This gives the hint as to when this house was built. It was a ‘fine house’ with frescoed walls, terra cotta stuffe (wood-burning heating stoves in each room) and details in the masonry at the roof edge typical of finer houses. The Madonna, a very large ceramic of the Holy Family, is mounted in a special brick niche in the front street wall of The Villa. This was made in San Quirico d’Orcia at a fornace which closed in 1678. (There is a story coming to the Journal page about the theft and recovery of The Madonna.) The Guazzi family added their coat of arms in 1855, above the Madonna.
The living spaces of this ‘fine house’ were all on the second floor, along the north wall, overlooking the village street. The back wall of the upstairs main hallway toward the garden, through which you enter Granaio, Maddalena, the hallway to Giardino and Fresco, was the south wall of the house. The niche in the stairway and the doorway to the Giardino/Fresco hallway were open to the south, together with one other that is buried in the wall where the stair goes to the Girasole. So all spaces had windows – the stairs and hall and every room.
The ground floor was used for carriages, food storage (wine, cheeses, apples, oil, etc.). The cantina and kitchen were areas for the horses and a cow or two. The garden was a combination farm yard and kitchen garden. The chicken and rabbit houses were still in the garden in 2002. The Commune Architect, who approves all changes to building exteriors, allowed their ‘volumes’ to be combined and that, together with the tool sheds was enough space to apply for the construction of the tettoio. (The tool sheds yielded all of the floor tiles for all the bathrooms – some dating back to the middle 1800’s!!)
In approximately 1710 the ‘new addition’ was built. This was used, until 1967 as an agricultural building and olive mill. The milling stones are in the garden and the original fitting for the millstone is still in the arch in the dining room. The stones and the olive oil jar that pours water into the open cistern were all found buried under the dirt floor in the old barn. The old barn was built without mortar and stood where the limonaia now stands. The beams were rotten at the ends. There was only one doorway, large and rectangular. When the barn was dismantled and the floor excavated by my contractors, the Brandini, the father and 2 sons who did all the work on the house, discovered the jar in 3 pieces, together with all the millstones. Over the years the cantina and kitchen areas were used for the village forge, the flues were still in place when the house was purchased. Next to the refrigerator you can still see the accumulation from the bellows. The entry hall was, at one time a car repair shop, as we see the ‘pit’ still in the floor under the rug and table.
The upper floor was used for agricultural storage ~ granaio. In 2002 the only way to get into the Granaio and Maddalena spaces was up a ladder through a hatch in the ceiling. At some point in the past the area of the Fresco and Giardino bathrooms, the Giardino bedroom, spaces in the 1710 addition, were incorporated into the apartment in the building to the south, using a long hallway. When this was done, perhaps in the late 1800’s the ceiling of what was now the living room was rebuilt with a system of iron I-beams, into which arches of brick were built. You can see this style in many buildings to this day. The arches were filled, from above with clay, tightly packed. Over this the terrazzo floor tiles were laid in the rooms above. When the work was begun in 2002 the clay had begun to break down. At one location you could see through a hole in the floor to the living room space below.
Rather than remove the clay, replace with concrete and relay the tiles, we opted to replace the I beam system with the original chestnut beam ceiling, which raised the ceiling height to its original height. This is also, indirectly, the reason that the windows in the Giardino bedroom are taller and more slender than others in the house. The Commune Architect allowed the highest and lowest header and sill to be used for the new windows.
As I got acquainted with the house, its history, its spaces, its sunlight, its faces in the seasons, bringing it together to create the Villa flowed. It was not a struggle. So many things you see were ‘given’ by the buildings that make up the house ~ cues if you can see them in the sizes of rooms, the heights of ceilings, the way that existing spaces can be crafted to meet new needs. Infusing into this old architecture the systems that give it comfort was a challenge but the hands of knowledgeable craftsmen and technicians were here in Montisi to create the transformation.
A word about regulation in restoration. Villa Maddalena was fortunate to have a geometer, a kind of architect/planner/surveyor, who was creative and has an excellent rapport with the Commune (sub-county) Architect. None of the permits took more than a week. The only thing that we wanted that we didn’t get was an in-ground pool. But these are never allowed in private homes in historic districts, unless the house has 10 hectares of land under cultivation and is a certified Agriturismo, which the Villa is not.
The style of the limonaia, with its arched doors, the tettoio, the loggia off the Maddalena bedroom, the French doors in the living room and dining rooms, all new features, I credit to the finesse of the geometer Danielle Monachini and Anna Maria Redi. Anna Maria was the estate agent with a keen eye and sense of design working on our behalf during the sale and the negations with the Contrada San Martino and the first half of the restoration work. Her connections with fine local craftsmen and suppliers were invaluable in achieving the end result. Between them The Villa is a lovely home with the garden you see. The regulation of renovation in this area of Tuscany has been the safeguard that makes this beauty of the old villages sustainable while allowing changes and new housing. A tough balance. Not always perfect, but for me, for this home, a process that worked well.
The Brandini family, father Giuseppe and sons Claudio and Paulo, were the heart and soul of the Villa for the 2 years of the transformation. They arrived every day at 7.30 and worked, with only a lunch hour until 5.30. No coffee breaks, no ‘disappearances’. They kept up this pace for months on end; working hard, doing heavy, straining work. Guiseppe even came in on Saturdays for bits of time.
Because they have been together since the boys were born they form a unique, by American standards, team. They grew up knowing that they would always be together. Their relationships were not based upon leaving home at 18 and only being together for holidays. It was always a fact that they were together now and would be, working and living, always. Guiseppe, Paolo and Claudio all live in Montisi, only a hundred yards away from the Villa. This created a wonderful subtext to everything. Their days were laced with geniality, consideration, a deep understanding of each person’s strengths, weaknesses and preferences and tolerances. Each stepped in at the right moment with a hand or a tool. It was almost choreography. Watching them work together was one of the greatest gifts of this entire experience. I learned so much about life, respect, family and tradition from these 3 men. Lessons that I will always treasure. What you see is the result of these wonderful men and the family they are. And the pride they take in their work, throughout the village, they are transforming the past into the future one house at a time.
Everything in the house came from this area. All the craftsmen have their workshops within a few kilometers except Dario, who built the fireplace fronts. His studio is in Asciano. All the furniture came from Arezzo or a shop near Attigliano, 45 minutes south. All the beds are handmade mattresses made in Torrita di Siena. Many of the staples come from Ikea, either in Rome or Florence. The piano was in a barn under a sheet of plastic, and piled with stuff.
The stone in the baths and in the kitchen all came from Buonconvento, a stone yard and shop run by a man and his son who take enormous pride in their art. Thanks to Anna Maria this man worked his magic in almost every room of the house. The iron work all came from a bottega in San Giovanni d’Asso with the central craftsman a native son of Montisi. The doors, windows, shelves and kitchen fittings came from a wood-working bottega you can see from the garden, in Castelmuzio. Run by a man and his son, the Perugini have built fine woodwork for this area for 50 years. Even Mrs. Perugini works in the bottega assisting with the hand-rubbed finishes. The heating system was installed largely by the other Brandini, Franco, who also lives in Montisi. All of the intricate electrical systems and the sound wiring and the eventual hardwire LAN is due to the attention of Stephano, who lives in Montisi and is the capitano of the Torre Contrada. His wife, Silvia and a couple of other ladies who live in Montisi keep the house tidy and clean.
This house was a labor of love for me and could not have happened without the talent and good will of all of these people. They have made me and Madelyn feel welcome. They have, I think, finally understood that this is more than a house for us. It is a home which one day will become all of that and more.