The Wall Street Journal - 09.08.2019

M4| Friday, August 9, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

museum. “Every little inch of

it has something unique,” he

said.

The home is among the

most expensive properties

on the market in Italy,

though prices aren’t always

publicly disclosed in the re-

gion, he added.

The market in the country

has struggled in recent years

as the eurozone economy has

slowed. A series of recent tax

changes on foreign-earned

income for people who set

up residence in Italy were

put into law to encourage in-

vestment from overseas.

“That tax is really helping

their market,” Mr. Kirman

said.

Mr. Zamparini said the

family has rented out the

property for events and has

profited from the surround-

ing vineyards, which produce

more than 100,000 bottles of

Chianti Classico each year.

The family also produces and

sells olive oil, Mr. Zamparini

said. The property spans

more than 100 acres, more

than 90 acres of which con-

tain the vineyards and olive

groves.

The home’s original irriga-

tion system, which includes

carved stone ditches and ac-

cumulation tanks, has been

preserved. It is thought to

date to the late-17th or

early-18th century.

The villa is made up of

two wings that wrap around

the gardens. The north wing

is home to a Baroque chapel,

where a Machiavelli coat of

arms is imprinted on the al-

tar. The home has a large

ballroom with small balco-

nies overlooking a dance

floor and busts of Roman

emperors and their wives,

according to the 2018 book.

One of the mansion’s 15

bedrooms is known as the

pope room. Pope Pius VIII is

said to have stayed during

an 1804 trip through the re-

gion.

The property has been

designated by the govern-

ment as a national monu-

ment, meaning it must be

opened to the public for a

certain number of days a

year, though Mr. Zamparini

said a deal could be struck

with the authorities if a

buyer wanted to live there

year-round.

Because the family wanted

to keep the home as original

as possible, he said the prop-

erty has no elevator and no

air conditioning. The villa

naturally stays cool in the

summer because of its thick

walls.

“It feels like you are jump-

ing into the past,” he said.

its elaborate gardens, filled

with box hedges, large rose

beds and citrus-tree or-

chards.

In 1999, the Zamparini

family purchased the villa

for an undisclosed sum. An-

drea Zamparini, the son of

Maurizio Zamparini, said

the family viewed the prop-

erty as an investment and

has spent only a few weeks

there a year. He said he ex-

pects to get the best price

for the property from an in-

ternational buyer lured by

the romance of Tuscany.

They hired a team of Amer-

ican real-estate agents to

sell it: Mr. Kirman and his

colleagues, Jeeb O’Reilly

and Sheru Pastiya. They are

working with Italian real-

estate agents.

“It’s not easy to find a

local entrepreneur to buy

it,” Mr. Zamparini said, cit-

ing the stagnating Italian

economy. “When you are

talking about very old and

very expensive, you have to

look around the world.”

Mr. Kirman, the agent,

compared the property to a

Under the

Tuscan Sun

The three-story villa

is full of artifacts

that represent

centuries of

ownership by Italian

noble families.

Above, one of the 15

bedrooms in the

villa, most of which

feature elaborate

canopies. Left, a

library.

Tuscany

Market Snapshot

The real-estate mar-

ket in the Tuscany re-

gion has stabilized over

the past few years after

a roughly 40% decline in

prices over the previous

decade, according to a

2019 research report by

the firm Knight Frank.

Florence and the city

of Lucca, about one hour

away by car, recorded a

1% growth in prices in

2018, the report said.

Recent changes to

tax laws concerning for-

eign nationals living in

Italy have been a major

driver of that resur-

gence, Knight Frank said.

About 150 ultrahigh-

net-worth individuals

applied for residency

through the program in

2018, according to the

Italian government. Buy-

ers from the Middle

East, the U.S. and the

U.K. were among the

most active in Tuscany

last year.

Cedric Roul of Knight

Frank said luxury prop-

erty in Florence and the

immediate surrounding

hills can command prices

in the range of about

$1,000 to $2,100 a

square foot.

ITALY

Villa Poggio

Torselli

San Casciano in

ValdiPesa

ITALY

theArnoth rno FLORENCE

Elisabetta Cappugi, Paolo Ga-

leotti, Massimo Rapisardi

and Gianni Salaorni.

Relatives of Niccolò Ma-

chiavelli are known to be its

earliest owners. The famous

author is said to have laid

low nearby, at another prop-

erty owned by his family, af-

ter an attempt to mount an

opposition to the rule of the

Medici family landed him in

exile in the early 1500s.

The relatively

modest home

was replaced

in the late

1600s by

the existing

one, a large

villa de-

signed by

architect and

artist Lorenzo

Merlini, who was

popular among the

Florentine aristocracy. The

villa later passed through

the hands of several noble

families, including the Anti-

nori wine family and the

Strozzi family, prominent in

banking and politics. The

property became known for

izio Zamparini, the patri-
arch, sold the Palermo
soccer team last year. The
Zamparinis also own depart-
ment stores and other
commercial real es-
tate across Italy.
Los Angeles-
based listing
agent Aaron
Kirman, of
Compass,
said the fam-
ily invested
millions in the
restoration of
the home, which is
more than 21,000
square feet.
The property first ap-
peared on the Italian land
register in 1427 as “a gentle-
man’s house with little and
poor ground and a farmer
house,” according to a 2018
book on the property by

Continued from page M1

A side room in the villa has a restored mural by Baroque artist Niccolò Lapi, left; the

cypress-lined entry road to the estate, above; and a first-floor sitting area, below.

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