Villa Gamberaia is pleased to host a special week of visits to the villas and gardens of distinguished American and British expatriates: artists and art collectors, poets and novelists who, attracted by the treasures of Renaissance art, the Tuscan landscape, and the ideal of country living, made Florence and the surrounding hills their home abroad.

The Gamberaia, celebrated for its unique gardens and splendid setting overlooking the city of Florence and the Arno Valley, has long inspired American and British landscape designers, from Charles Platt and Cecil Pinsent to Ellen Biddle Shipman. In the early 1900s it was the favorite meeting place of Bernard and Mary Berenson, Janet Ross, Vernon Lee and Arthur Acton, who gathered for tea, dinners on the terrace and talks on art and literature with their hostess, the Romanian princess Jeanne Ghyka and her American companion, artist Florence Blood, two very talented women who created the magnificent parterre d’eau.