To spot Villa Le Balze, look for a striking pale yellow villa with elegant arches, perched dramatically above a sculpted garden with geometric hedges and a sweeping view over the valley-you can't miss its lofty hillside position just beyond a wall covered in lush ivy.
Welcome to Villa Le Balze! Take a deep breath and let your eyes wander over the intricate, swirling patterns of green in the gardens-the perfect place to imagine that, if you were a philosopher, you’d finally solve all the world’s mysteries right here with a cup of coffee. Now, step back a moment and picture the year 1912. Charles Augustus Strong, an American philosopher-and lucky son-in-law of John D. Rockefeller-stands here with two British architects, squinting at these steep Tuscan cliffs and thinking, “Can we actually build a dream house here without rolling down the hill?”
Well, it turns out they could! But not without a little effort-about 1,200 tons of earth had to be hauled away just to make the land flat enough to build on. I hope they had a good wheelbarrow. Strong wanted the sort of view that would make any artist or philosopher sigh-not surprisingly, he’d just stayed up at Villa San Girolamo and was so impressed by the panoramic sweep of Florence that he said, “I want my villa to have this view, but with a side of cliffs.” So began the adventure of Villa Le Balze, which means “the cliffs” in Italian-well named, since in some spots, the ground drops at a dizzying 50-degree incline!
The gardens themselves are like a green labyrinth, with terraced levels that cascade down the slope, geometric flowerbeds edged in boxwood, and, in the center, a circular stone basin that looks made for fairy-tale wishes. Picture, if you will, Charles and Elizabeth Strong strolling through the orange garden-now brimming with blooming geraniums and the faint, fresh scent of citrus. Jasmine climbs the balcony walls, lemon trees dot the boxes, and a romantic path with rows of iris, lavender, and roses leads you onward-just mind you don’t get too swept away or you’ll be late for dinner!
When Charles lost his wife, the villa became a place for reflection and creativity. If these statues could talk, they’d spill the secrets of countless philosophical debates-think of Strong’s Harvard pal, George Santayana, visiting for long chats leading deep into the night. In fact, many of the statues nestled among the gardens are of philosophers themselves, commemorating those long, meaningful conversations among the olive trees and fountains. Fancy a bit of drama? Well, keep your ears open: just beside the villa, there’s a cave decorated with seashells and coral, and a fountain flanked by pebble mosaics, all presided over by the goddess Venus herself. Gives “spring water” a touch of mystery, doesn’t it?
But it wasn’t all sipping limoncello and pondering life’s great questions here. Fast-forward to World War II, and this peaceful retreat became a battlefield-literally! The villa was seized by German forces and transformed into a military headquarters. You can almost hear distant thunder as Allied forces shelled the hillside, shattering windows and scarring the gardens. A German mortar even crashed through the villa’s roof and-by some miracle-landed in the library without exploding. That’s one way to put a stop to late-night studying!
After the war, Charles’s daughter, Margaret Rockefeller Strong, looked after Villa Le Balze for 35 years, quietly tending to the memories and keeping the villa’s spirit alive. And then, in a move worthy of the movies, she gave the villa to Georgetown University. Why? The university’s provost promised Margaret he would keep the light burning at her son’s grave in Fiesole. Sounds like the kind of promise you’d read about in an old letter tucked away in a library.
Today, the villa buzzes with students from all over the world-a lively mashup of Italian culture, history, and chatter about exams. There’s a permanent staff (including some very good cooks, so rumor has it), and the place is a hive of learning and laughter from morning until, well, let’s just say philosophers never sleep early.
As you stand here, breathe in that mingling of fresh grass, ivy, and distant Florence air-from lonely philosopher’s retreat to wartime drama to a joyful academic hub, Villa Le Balze truly weaves together the quiet wisdom of the ages with a flash of excitement and, of course, a view to write home about. Wouldn’t you want your own cliffside villa, too?
