The Medici are from the Mugello. Before becoming Florence's bankers, Rome's popes and France's queens, they were a family of landowners on the upper Sieve, with a fortified house, a castle and a parish church. From these three properties — Cafaggiolo, the Trebbio, Bosco ai Frati — one of the most radical patronage systems in Western history set out.
Book the property →The Medici descend from the lords of Potrone, in the Mugello. The earliest written record dates from the 12th century, and by the 14th the family already owned three properties in the Sieve basin: the fortified house of Cafaggiolo, the castle of Trebbio, and the convent of Bosco ai Frati. A century before Cosimo the Elder became the master of Florence (1434), the Medici were already Mugellans.
Cafaggiolo (Barberino di Mugello, 8 km from the property) is a 14th-century stronghold reshaped into a villa by Michelozzo for Cosimo the Elder between 1443 and 1451. Since 2013 it has been part of the UNESCO site "Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany". Lorenzo the Magnificent used it as a summer retreat: here he wrote part of his Canti carnascialeschi, and hosted Poliziano, Pulci, Marsilio Ficino. The Castle of Trebbio (San Piero a Sieve, 12 km) is the oldest of the Medici villas: redesigned by Michelozzo for Cosimo in 1427, it preserves one of the earliest documented Italian-style gardens.
The Convent of Bosco ai Frati (San Piero a Sieve, 13 km) is the family's parish. Founded by the Ubaldini in the 7th century, it was restored, again by Michelozzo, in 1438 under Cosimo's patronage. It houses the Wooden Crucifix by Donatello (c. 1440), one of the master's least-seen works: thin arms, legible ribs, an expression that anticipates by decades the humanity of Renaissance figures. Free entry, always open.
The Medici of Cafaggiolo aren't collectors who buy already-made art: they commission art that doesn't yet exist. Donatello at Bosco ai Frati, Michelozzo at Cafaggiolo and Trebbio, Botticelli for the decorations, and — a century earlier — recognition for the genius of another Mugellan: Beato Angelico (Guido di Pietro, born in Vicchio c. 1395), the Dominican who painted the frescoes of San Marco convent in Florence between 1440 and 1445, on Cosimo's direct impulse.
A century earlier still, and four kilometres from Cafaggiolo, in a farmhouse at Vespignano, was born Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267 – Florence, 1337). Giotto never worked for the Medici — he died too soon — but he grew up in the same landscape, the same woods, the same ridges. The Casa di Giotto at Colle di Vespignano is open with free entry. Without Giotto, no perspective. Without Cosimo the Elder, no system. The Mugello is the valley where the two meet.
One of the five rooms of the Leopoldina is named after Giotto. Double bed, first floor, south-west exposure, bathroom shared with the Tagliatella room.