A Machiavelli estate in the Chianti hills
Villa Mangiacane stands among vineyards and olive groves at San Casciano in Val di Pesa, in the Chianti hills twelve kilometres from Florence, and a wedding here takes the whole estate for a minimum of two nights. The Albergaccio, where Niccolò Machiavelli is documented as writing The Prince, lies nearby, joined to the villa by a path through the grounds. The Machiavelli family owned the land for more than two centuries, and Palazzo Machiavelli, one of the two houses on the estate, still carries the family name.
The name Mangiacane refers to the mastiffs that once guarded the property, and two stone dogs still sit on the gate pillars. For a wedding the estate works as a small private village: two houses to stay in, gardens for ceremonies, a cellar for the party that follows and a spa on the grounds.
A house that outlived its owners
In 1393 Buoninsegna Machiavelli and Lorenzo di Filippo inherited the derelict Castle of Montesertoli in the Val di Pesa, and the family’s rising fortunes let them buy a property on the Roman road from the powerful Pitti family, on the site of the present villa. Niccolò Machiavelli inherited the estate from his father Bernardo in 1511 and died in 1527 in the family house in Florence. In 1598 the architect Giorgio Vasari il Giovane published his plans for a second phase of additions to the villa, and tradition links Michelangelo to its design, a link the historian Alfredo Melani set down in 1884.
In 1646 the villa and its four neighbouring estates were sold to Senator Mazzeo Mazzei, which ended the Machiavelli ownership. The Mazzei family kept it for three centuries, among them Filippo Mazzei, born in 1730, a physician and writer who became a close friend of Thomas Jefferson. A severe earthquake damaged the villa in 1895, and in 1913 the family signed an act protecting it as a historic building. In the Second World War the German army used the estate as a command centre, and after the area was liberated in 1944 the Allied forces used it as a hospital.
Between 1956 and 1979 the ruins of the east wing were cleared and the front entrance and the piazza altered. In 2004 the Mangiacane Art Foundation planned the Shona sculpture exhibition in the gardens, the restoration of the estate was completed in 2007, and the villa opened as a small hotel.
Ceremonies in the gardens, the courtyard and the loggia
The estate offers four settings for a ceremony, each at a different scale. The Olive Oil Gardens, a large lawn among olive trees and cypresses, take up to 200 guests for a ceremony and up to 250 for dinner. The Machiavelli Courtyard, the royal entrance of the villa, holds 100 for a ceremony or 150 at round tables. The Italian Garden takes 80, and the lower loggia 60. For a ceremony in close contact with nature there is also the Amphitheatre, set in the woods away from the villa.
The restored Renaissance loggia, with its frescoes, looks toward Florence and its Duomo, and tables can be laid under its frescoes for dinner.
Dinner outdoors, and the party in the cellar
Receptions use the gardens, the loggia terraces, the pools and the Barricaia, an old cellar for up to 100 guests at round tables. The Barricaia is where the evening can run late: it has no limit on sound or time, as long as nearby houses are not affected, while music and fireworks outdoors end at 10pm under local noise rules. Fireworks need thirty days’ notice for the permit.
Couples can bring their own musicians and suppliers. The estate asks to be told who they are so that it can share the house rules, and live music requires the Italian SIAE fee to be settled in advance. An Events Manager plans the details of the day.
Twenty-eight rooms across two houses
Palazzo Machiavelli and Villa Mazzei together hold twenty-eight rooms and suites, sleeping up to sixty guests. Palazzo Machiavelli has ten rooms and suites, among them the Royal Suite, the bridal suite, with a marble bath. Villa Mazzei has eighteen: two classic rooms, two superior, eight deluxe and six junior suites, with an infinity pool and a rose garden of its own. Palazzo Machiavelli can also be taken alone, for up to twenty-two guests, which makes the old house a smaller wedding in its own right on the same grounds.
The spa, the pools and the sculpture garden
The Nadushka Spa has a heated indoor pool, a Finnish sauna, a steam room, three treatment rooms and a small gym, and the estate has two outdoor pools. More than 220 pieces of Shona sculpture stand across the grounds, among the pools and gardens.
A working estate of wine and olives
The estate covers 306 hectares at 250 to 300 metres above sea level. Most of it is olive trees, hand harvested and processed without chemicals, and about 43 hectares are planted with vines, chiefly Sangiovese, the red grape of Chianti. The winery produces about 50,000 bottles of Chianti Classico a year, using organic methods, and offers cellar tours and vineyard picnics. The concierge can also arrange wine tastings, cooking classes, hot air balloon rides and tours of Tuscany; the Antinori winery is ten kilometres away, San Gimignano 37.5 kilometres and Monteriggioni 42.
Planning a wedding at Villa Mangiacane
The estate is rented as a whole from €26,400 a night plus VAT between 15 October and 15 May, and from €30,800 a night plus VAT between 15 May and 15 October, with a minimum stay of two nights. Palazzo Machiavelli alone is €13,200 a night in the lower season and €17,600 in the higher, plus VAT. The rental includes a welcome drink on arrival, a daily concierge from 9am to 5pm, daily housekeeping, private parking, Wi-Fi and electric vehicle charging. Breakfast is €35 plus VAT per person, heating of the indoor pool is €400 plus VAT a day, and the city tax is extra.
Florence airport is 23 kilometres away, Pisa is about an hour by car and Bologna about an hour and twenty minutes, and Florence Santa Maria Novella station is a twenty minute drive. The estate has a helicopter landing area, private car and driver transfers can be arranged, and parking at the main entrance is complimentary.
A wedding weekend on the whole estate
Villa Mangiacane suits couples who want a wedding weekend rather than a single day, with a guest list that can sleep on the property and a setting with real Florentine history that feels private. The main considerations are the two night minimum, the price of the whole estate, and the 10pm limit on outdoor music, which the Barricaia cellar answers for the late part of the evening.
Check your date at Villa Mangiacane, or read how a wedding in Tuscany comes together in the Wedding Atlas.
