Settignano is a picturesque
frazione ranged on a hillside northeast of
Florence,
Italy, with spectacular views that have attracted American expatriates for generations. The little
borgo of Settignano carries a familiar name for having produced three sculptors of the
Florentine Renaissance,
Desiderio da Settignano and the Gamberini brothers, better known as
Bernardo Rossellino and
Antonio Rossellino. The young
Michelangelo lived with a sculptor and his wife in Settignano—in a farmhouse that is now the "Villa Michelangelo"— where his father owned a marble quarry. In 1511 another sculptor was born there,
Bartolomeo Ammanati. The marble quarries of Settignano produced this series of sculptors.
Roman remains are to be found in the borgo which claims connections to Septimus Severus—in whose honor a statue was erected in the oldest square in the 16th century, destroyed in 1944— though habitation here long preceded the Roman emperor. Settignano was a secure resort for estivation for members of the Guelf faction of Florence. Giovanni Boccaccio and Niccolò Tommaseo both appreciated its freshness, among the vineyards and olive groves that are the preferred setting for even the most formal Italian gardens. In 1898 Gabriele d'Annunzio purchased the trecento Villa della Capponcina on the outskirts of Settignano, in order to be nearer to his lover Eleanora Duse, at the Villa Porziuncola. Near Settignano are the Villa Gamberaia, a 14th-century villa famous for its 18th-century terraced garden, and secluded Villa I Tatti, the villa of Bernard Berenson, now a center of art history studies run by Harvard University.
pan style="font-size small;">Coordinates 43°47′N 11°19′E / 43.783°N 11.317°E / 43.783; 11.317
