Villa Ottone through centuries...

 

 

 

 

 The Altoviti family are descended from the Longobards.

 

From 1200 onwards they owned houses and towers in the Parione area of Florence , in via Tornabuoni and in Borgo Santi Apostoli. On becoming bankers, they had to suffer so much hostility from Cosimo di Medici (known as “Cosimo Il Vecchio”) that in the fifteenth century Antonio Altoviti decided to move to Rome where he married his cousin, the daughter of the then Pope Innocent VIII (Giovan Battista Cibo of Genoa).

 However, the relationship with the Medici was still tense, even though it was smoothed by able diplomacy on both sides. In the sixteenth century under the succeeding Medici popes, Antonio’s son, Bindo Altoviti, oversaw the administration of the Vatican finances and the conspicuous income gained from selling indulgences. He even became the Florentine consul in Rome , or in other words the representative of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

The Altoviti were great patrons of the arts, with palaces and villas frescoed by Vasari, medals and busts made by Benvenuto Cellini, and portraits painted by Raffaello, etc. But these houses and villas in Rome and Florence have almost disappeared with the growth of those cities over the centuries. This was especially the case in the nineteenth century when, during Italian unification, new districts, new government ministries and the road along the Tiber were built.

In 1850 my great grandmother Vittoria Altoviti Avila married Giuseppe Toscanelli, a noble Pisan landowner. From a young age he had fought for Italian independence, to such an extent that in 1860, on the unification of Italy, he was immediately elected deputy to the first parliament in Turin,which then moved to Florence and finally to Rome. He was a great agriculturalist and an expert  wine maker, so he also continued to busy himself enthusiastically with his Pisan estates.

His wife Vittoria was an active and cultured woman. She was always very attached to her original family. Unlike her ancestors, she could not patronise artists as great as Raffaello, Vasari or Michaelangelo, however she loved to associate with and protect the intellectuals and artists whom she received in her palace in Lungarno Toscanelli in Pisa or in Florence , in the well-known salon of Emilia Peruzzi Toscanelli, her sister-in-law. There were the writers and poets Giuseppe Giusti, Edmondo De Amicis, Renato Fucini, the artist Antonio Ciseri, the “macchiaioli” Florentine impressionist painter Telemaco Signorini, Eugenio Cecconi etc. Vittoria ’s daughter Angiolina married her cousin Corbizzo Altoviti, so Vittoria could hope that her maiden name might gain new luster.

However, she had the misfortune of seeing her handsome son Giovan Battista, known as Bistino, become ill with tuberculosis. Doctors considered sea air to be the best cure. So Vittoria immediately chose a beautiful area in the still wild island of Elba to build a gentleman’s residence so Bistino could try to get well by the sea. I have not managed to find in my family documents the name of the Livorno architect who built this villa. Bistino arrived at Ottone in 1875 and at first his health improved, he began to busy himself  with the territory and the Elban population, to such an extent that notwithstanding his youth, he was nominated  mayor of Portoferraio. However, because of his ill health he did not wish to accept the office. He was, however, made president of charity works and inspector of Elban schools. He carried out these tasks with great diligence and love. This was returned by the population and by the authorities, as can be  seen in the speech given by the mayor of Portoferraio, the lawyer Pietro Traditi, when Bistino died in November 1882. He was only 25 years old! 

After this Vittoria , now a widow, moved to the smaller house of Ottonella, leaving the big villa on the sea to my grandmother Angiolina and my mother Clarice. It was agreed to sell the property in the early 1920s.

The “belle époque” had come to an end: the First World War had charged our way of life forever and it was necessary to simplify our affairs. But now you can enjoy this wonderful Villa which has been transformed into a “hotel de charme”.

Written and signed by Antonia Altoviti, Easter 1998