The Azienda Agricola Poggio Cappiano is a family-run farm in Ponte a Cappiano, just a few kilometres from Florence in the Tuscan countryside.
For many years now, our main efforts have concentrated on the production of extra-virgin olive oil from typical Tuscan olives from our own estate, particularly from the cultivar Madremignola, cultivar Mignola, and Frantoio, Leccino and Moraiolo varieties blend.
Our olive oil is sold directly on company premises and by shipping, in 0.1 litre, 0.25 litre, 0.5 litre and 0.75 litre bottles.
From harvest to packaging, every detail receives extreme care.
More information can be found in our web site, however please do not hesitate to contact us for any further information or for a quote, via e-mail: info@poggiocappiano.it
Villa Minutoli at Massaciuccoli
The building, which was perhaps the centre of the original building, belonged to the Spada family, but at the beginning of the 19th century, was inherited with all the surrounding properties, by count Carlo Minutoli, who increased them considerably thanks to the cultivation of rice. The immense farm was divided up subsequently; the part in the hills was divided into lots and were bought by italians and people from abroad. During the second half of the 1700s, the villa housed the first archaeological finds from the excavations of the baths.
The Accademia dei Rassicurati Theatre now belongs to the municipality and dates back to 1795; it was the work of the Florentine architect Antonio Capretti. Its presence could go completely unnoticed, situated as it is in the row of buildings on the block between via Cairoli and Via Carmignani.
It is entered through two small doors numbered 14 and 16 on via Carmignani and it consists of a small elliptical theatre surrounded by a double tier of 22 boxes in addition to four stage boxes and gallery; it has all the characteristics in miniature of an Opera House of the 18th and 19th centuries.
The tempera decorations of the outside of the boxes and the vaulted ceiling are charming, but very much retouched and in need of further work.
The Garden that extends from the hill behind the Pitti Palace as far as Porta Romana, reached its current extension and appearance, becoming one of the largest and most elegant Italian style gardens, through several stages of enlargement and restructuring work carried out at diffrent times.
The first works initially affected the area that was closer to the palace, after the buildung had been purchased by Cosimo I de´ Medici and by his wife Eleonora di Toledo, who had chosen this place for new grand ducal palace.
The initial plan was drawn by Niccolò Tribolo, although the works were completed, after his death in 1550 by other architects including also Giorgio Vasari (from 1554 to 1561) along with Bartolomeo Ammannati and Bernardo Buontalenti under the reign of Francis I, who succeeded to his father Cosimo.
The Medici and the Lorraine families continued to enrich and enlarge the garden also in 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Besides adding lovely meadows, avenues, small groves and beautiful panoramic views, they made the garden more precious by including extraordinary decorative complexes, thus forming an outdoor museum that exhibited both Roman and 16th and 17th century statues.
The first phase led to the creation of an “Amphitheatre” adjoined to the hill behind the palace. The early amphitheatre, initially formed by “edges and evergreen meadows”, was later replaced by a stone one decorated with statues based on Roman myths such as the Fountain of the Ocean sculptured by Giambologna, then transferred to another location within the same garden, the small “Grotto of Madama”, and the “Large Grotto”, which has begun by Vasari and ended by Ammannati and Buontalenti between 1583 and 1593.
Despite the fact that it is currently undergoing complex restoration work (1998) due to the damages suffered over centuries these statues continue to be remarkable examples of Mannerism architecture and culture.
Decorated internally and externally with stalatites and originally equipped with water plays and a luxuriant vegetation, the fountain is divided into three main sections.
The first one was frescoed to create the illusion of a natural grotto, that is a natural refuge to allow shepherds to protect themselves from wild animals, and originally housed the Prisoners of Michelangelo, which were moved to this location after they had become part of the Medici collection (the original statues have now been replaced by copies).
The rooms that follow exhibit valuable sculptures like the “Bathing Venus” of Giambologna and the group of “Paris and Hellen” of Vincenzo de Rossi.
NOTE:
Due to their very nature, these historical garden require costant restoration and maintenance.
A schedule has therefore been established which provide for their seasonal, yearly and long-term care through periodic renovation and upkeep.
Clearly, the architectural component and plant life are involved more frequently than the inorganic structures of the garden and its decorations, and although the different types of work are not necessarily interdipendent, they have been planned for during the same period of time.
Moreover, the need to safeguard sculptural works from degradation by atmospherical agents and vandalism often requires housing the originals indoors and replacing them with copies for display. Thus, the gardens’ furnishings are necessarily in an incomplete and costantly changing state.
Basilica di San Miniato al Monte stands atop one of the highest points in Florence, its gleaming white-and-green facade visible from the valley below, has been described as the finest Romanesque structure in Tuscany and one of the most beautiful churches in Italy. San Miniato is one of the few ancient churches of Florence to survive the centuries virtually intact.
San Miniato was an eastern Christian who settled in Florence and was martyred during Emperor Decius’s persecutions in A.D. 250.
The legend goes that the decapitated saint picked up his head, walked across the river, climbed up the hillside, and didn’t lie down to die until he reached this spot. He and other Christians were buried here, and a shrine was raised on the site as early as the 4th century.
The current building began to take shape in 1013, under the auspices of the powerful Arte di Calimala guild, whose symbol, a bronze eagle clutching a bale of wool, perches atop the facade.
The Romanesque facade is a particularly gorgeous bit of white Carrara and green Prato marble inlay. Above the central window is a 13th-century mosaic of Christ between the Madonna and St. Miniato.
The interior has a few Renaissance additions, but they blend in well with the overall medieval aspect – an airy, stony space with a raised choir at one end, painted wooden trusses on the ceiling, and tombs interspersed with inlaid marble symbols of the zodiac paving the floor.
Below the choir is an 11th-century crypt with small frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi.
Off to the right of the raised choir is the sacristy, which Spinello Aretino covered in 1387 with cartoonish yet elegant frescoes depicting the Life of St. Benedict.
Off the left aisle of the nave is 15th-century Cappella del Cardinale del Portogallo, a brilliant collaborative effort by Renaissance artists built to honor young Portuguese humanist Cardinal Jacopo di Lusitania, who was sent to study in Perugia but died an untimely death at 25 in Florence. Brunelleschi’s student Antonio Manetti started the chapel in 1460 but soon died, and Antonio Rossellino finished the architecture and carving by 1466. Luca della Robbia provided the glazed terra-cotta dome, a cubic landscape set with tondi of the four Virtues surrounding the Holy Spirit to symbolize the young scholar’s devotion to the church and to humanist philosophy.
It stands as one of della Robbia’s masterpieces of color and classical ideals. The unfinished bell tower seen from the outside was designed by Baccio d’Agnolo.
In 1530 the combined troops of Charles V and Medici Pope Clement VII, who had recently reconciled with each other, lay siege to the newly declared Republic of Florence in an attempt to reinstate the Medici dukes. San Miniato al Monte was one of the prime fortifications, and an artilleryman named Lapo was stationed up in the tower with two small cannons – he was basically bait, stuck there to draw the fire of the enemy where it would do little harm.
The man in charge of the defenses was Michelangelo, who, the authorities figured, was so good at everything else, why not military fortifications? After throwing up dirt ramparts and cobbling together defensible walls out of oak timbers, Michelangelo helped poor Lapo out by devising an ingenious way to protect the tower: He hung mattresses down the sides to absorb the shock of the cannonballs fired at it and left the tower (and, more important, Lapo) still standing.
The siege was eventually successful, however, and the Florentine Republic fell, but while it lasted, Michelangelo spent his day up here and referred to the church of San Salvatore al Monte just below as “my pretty country maid.” It’s a simple 1400 church built by Cronaca, with a Giovanni della Robbia Deposition and a Neri di Bicci Pietà inside.
