Villa Cetinale: Memoir Of A House In Tuscany

Located just outside Siena, Villa Cetinale stands amid vineyards, olive groves and wooded hills that have remained virtually untouched since the late 17th century, when Cardinal Flavio Chigi, nephew of Pope Alexander VII, enlarged what had been a modest farmhouse into the villa we know today.

The villa was purchased from the Chigi dynasty in 1978 by Lord Antony Lambton, who laid out new gardens and welcomed fashionable English celebrities including Princess Margaret, Prince Charles, Mick Jagger, Rupert Everett, Tony Blair and Kate Moss.

Ned Lambton and his wife Marina have carried out extensive renovation work that has not altered the original character of the house: the restoration work was carried out by Bolko von Schweinichen, a Florentine architect known for his respect for historic buildings, and the interiors by London interior designer Camilla Guinness, a long-standing friend of the family.

This book, illustrated with photographs by Simon Upton, brings to life the rich history of the villa, its redecoration and its eventful history.