Ristorante La Tavernaccia Da Bruno

La Tavernaccia, a florentine villa from the 18th century, is solid, square, a bit superb, disdainful, on top of a hill. Romantic and machiavellian at the same time, a summary of the italian spirit.

Stendhal could have chosen it for the setting of one of his unreachable novels. Machiavelli lived 3 km away where he wrote "The Prince". Warm and cold. If you look to the south west it opens the view to an unprecedented Tuscany: yellow of the color of the wheat, crushed by a gray and blue sky. In the background with the clear sky from the north wind you can see the silhouette of Volterra and the thing that shines further is the Tyrrhenian Sea. Inwards, instead, it overlooks a round and collected valley, rich in woods and vineyards, swollen with a slow and satisfied life. Above that green looms a forest of pine and holm oaks. Florence downtown is less than 10 kilometers away. From the garden of the villa you can see the Brunelleschi Dome and the Giotto tower.

Precisely for this position, in early August of 1944 during the Second World War, Maori, New Zealand and Australian troops fought arms around La Tavernaccia against the rear guards of the Nazi army occupying Florence. That very silent and detached Arcadia from the world suddenly became bitter and bloody. Melee of commandos between the olive trees, day and night and Tavernaccia, precisely because it dominated the landscape, became the headquarters of the Strategic Command which decided on tactics and battle orders. The dreaded Tiger tanks, the pride of the Nazi army, were also used. Very few prisoners. In the trunks of the olive groves of the small valley, where there is now the tennis court and the swimming pool, years ago, traces of those fights were still found: splinters, bullets, fragments of bombs exploded. It didn’t last long. Florence was freed on 11 August 1944.

https://villatavernaccia.com/history/

Photo: Javier Somoza