The villa Francesco I gave to Bianca Cappello
Villa Il Cerretino stands on a rise between Poggio a Caiano and Carmignano, in the Tuscan province of Prato, with the Florence skyline visible from its terraces. Its reputation is bound to the Medici: Grand Duke Francesco I made it the home of Bianca Cappello, the Venetian noblewoman who was first his mistress and later his second wife, and a passage said to have joined them still exists in the house. Weddings are held here for up to 250 guests, with a chapel, a Nymphaeum for secular ceremonies, two gardens and six bedrooms, and the property can be taken as a whole by the wedding party.
That history is not a footnote to the venue. The house has been rebuilt and adapted by a succession of owners, and a wedding here takes place in rooms where fifteenth century military stonework, farm buildings and a noble villa of the Medici era sit side by side.
A house that changed hands for five centuries
The name comes from cerri, the local word for the oaks in the woods around the house. In the fifteenth century the property belonged to the Bini family, whose coats of arms remain on the tower and in the inner courtyard. It then passed to the Medici. In the sixteenth century the villa was renovated, and it gained the large kneeling windows on its eastern and rear sides and a new upper lawn outside the main floor.
The Moldetti family, who owned it in the eighteenth century, adapted the chapel, built the eastern tower and added the central Belvedere of the lower garden. The chapel is dedicated to San Francesco di Paola, and a Florentine artist decorated its ceiling. In the nineteenth century the Contini Bonacossi family worked the land as a farm: twenty hectares around the villa produced wine, in what is now the Carmignano DOCG zone, and olive oil. At the end of the 1960s the present owners bought the property and restored it, lived in it themselves, and later opened it for events and holiday stays.
Pop Art in the lounges
The interiors are the second reason couples choose it. The owners collect contemporary Italian art, and the lounges on the main floor hold Italian Pop Art beside furniture designed by Poltronova in the 1970s. The Pistoia School leads the collection: Valerio Adami’s Vaso di Pandora, a totem called Menta by Ettore Sottsass, and paintings by Roberto Barni, Umberto Buscioni and Gianni Ruffi. In September 2019 the young Milanese artist Benni Bosetto joined the six artists already shown, and the owners continue to host work by emerging artists, some for a season and some permanently.
The design has a record of its own. Casa Vogue described the great living room in its July and August 1978 issue: it opens onto the fortified terrace on one side and looks over a small valley of olive trees on the other, under the original vaulted ceiling, with Gianfranco Fini’s Super Regolo sofas and armchairs for Poltronova as the few pieces that fill it.
Ceremonies at the chapel and the Nymphaeum
A church ceremony, whether a wedding, baptism or communion, can take place in the small chapel on the property or at the Church of Bonistallo, a few minutes away. Secular ceremonies, such as civil unions, blessings and symbolic rites, are held at the Nymphaeum in the Belvedere Garden. The setting looks across to the Medici Villa of Poggio a Caiano, with Florence in the distance, and the same Nymphaeum is lit for evening dinners on the lawn in front of it.
The Nymphaeum is outdoors, so the choice between garden and chapel is worth making early, and the indoor rooms mean a wet day does not take the wedding apart.
Dinner on the lawn, in the Winter Garden or by the fire
The Garden of the Well is the large outdoor space for receptions and dinners, and the grounds can host a wedding of hundreds. Indoors the villa has event spaces for up to 180 guests, so the day does not depend on the weather. The Winter Garden has windows over the Garden of the Well; air conditioning keeps it cool in summer, and heating and a large fireplace warm it in winter.
The area around the swimming pool, an infinity pool with two whirlpool corners, suits the welcome drinks before a seated dinner. In autumn, when the hills turn to warm colours, the villa also works for smaller weddings, with dinners in a room with a fireplace.
Staying at the villa
The villa has six bedrooms on the first floor, five rooms and one suite, sleeping fourteen. Each has a private bathroom, air conditioning and Wi-Fi, and the rooms are furnished in Tuscan style with 1970s Poltronova pieces. The suite has a dark wood four-poster bed under a beamed ceiling. Downstairs, many large common rooms open onto one another, with a Tuscan kitchen and shared dining rooms, and the pool is private to the house.
The villa can also be taken as a holiday rental, which makes it a base for a wedding weekend as much as for the day itself: family and close friends can arrive early and stay on the property.
The hills around the villa
The Medici Villa of Poggio a Caiano, a UNESCO World Heritage site, stands on the hill facing the terraces, and the village below it is a few minutes away by car. Carmignano, known for its wine and for a dried fig found nowhere else, is ten minutes away, and from the terraces the main square and bell tower of Prato are visible; the city is fifteen minutes by car, and its cathedral holds frescoes by Filippo Lippi. Florence is in view from the terraces, and the heart of Chianti is about an hour away.
Planning a wedding here
The grounds take up to 250 guests for a wedding and the indoor spaces up to 180. The whole property can be taken for the wedding party, with the six bedrooms, the infinity pool and the kitchen and dining rooms included. The date is the first conversation, and the villa’s event team shape the day around the couple’s own plans, from the ceremony to the evening.
A private Medici villa for the wedding weekend
Villa Il Cerretino suits couples who want a private Tuscan villa with a real past and a serious collection of art, close to Florence and Prato but entirely their own for the weekend. The Medici history and the Pop Art give it a character that few wedding houses in the region have, and the practical spaces, a chapel, a Nymphaeum, a Winter Garden and a pool, give a planner plenty to work with.
Check your date at Villa Il Cerretino, or read how a wedding in Tuscany comes together in the Wedding Atlas.
