OUR HISTORY
The Rosselmini villa was born as a summer home of the ancient Pisan family of Conti Rosselmini who lived in the Rosselmini palace in via Santa Maria in Pisa during the winter and moved to Calci on summer holidays. The villa's foundations date back to the 1500s, but in the following centuries it had many modifications and extensions. Probably the chapel was initially detached from the central body of the villa, presumably added in the 18th century with the aim to create an internal connection between the villa and the chapel. In the 18th century, according to the fashion of the period the interiors of the villa were softened from numerous frescoes by the same artists who were called to Calci to embellish the Certosa. And waiting for the frescoes of the Certosa to dry, the same artists willingly accepted some commission in the nearby villas.
The last descendant of the Rosselmini family was Countess Laura who in 1921 married the Marquis Giuseppe Mazzarosa Devincenzi and moved to live in the Mazzarosa palace in Lucca. In order not to leave the villa abandoned, the Marquess Laura, who was very pious, religious and above all very generous, let it to the nuns who soon transformed the villa into a orphanage. On the ground floor the rooms were emptied and transformed into a refectory, kitchens and study rooms and on the upper floor together with all the rooms were used as dormitories for the orphans.
The Marchesa Laura kept only some rooms of the wing of the villa which connects to the chapel and used to come here to spend a few days in the summer, perhaps to remember with nostalgia the good times when she lived in the villa with her parents and her brothers.
The M.se Pietro, who inherited the villa after the death of M.sa Laura in 1964, donated the Villa (in the meantime restored) to his son Antonio Mazzarosa born in 1956, and who is still the owner today. The nuns in the meantime were less numerous but much older and due also to the falling number of abandoned children, decided to close the orphanage and to give back the villa to the owners. The villa was then rented to the Tuscany Region, which used it for a decade for a number of training courses. But at the end of the 80s the Region also left the Villa and returned it to the owner in a pitiful state. Any use that the owner wanted to make of it required urgent restoring. The owner restored the villa, with the intention to come to live there with his family.
As soon as the villa was habitable, the young family of Marquis Antonio Mazzarosa Devincenzi moved in in 1993. Initially, the villa was completely empty. With much patience and good will, the villa was furnished, one room after another. Then a solution was sought to make it economically independent. To do this, little by little the outbuildings of the villa were also restored, with the intention of renting them out as agritourism houses. This new activity imposed new priorities: in order to continue the agritourism business, it was necessary to build a swimming pool and make the living room more attractive, and then a second pool . Thanks to the discovery of old period photographs, the garden was restored to its original appearance. The central flower bed with the circular driveway was recreated. The plants in the grove, which had suffered long years of neglect, were also reinvigorated with drastic pruning in 1993 , which is now no longer noticeable already that the plants have grown back more vigorously than before and provide much refreshing shade in the summertime.
Slowly the family also enjoyed planting magnolias, holm oaks, mimosas for each child born . Several 19th-century fruit plants were also planted such as pomegranate, cherry, quince, walnut, and many aromatic plants in order to make a home use of them. However, the family tried to plant some flowering plants in order to decorate the house with beautiful bouquets from the garden. And thanks to the modern and sturdy oleander, the garden all summer long gives a beautiful splash of color. Now the garden grows with us , according to our needs and just like it has something old, traditional, elegant I hope, and natural... but nothing pretentious.
Marquis Antonio's children grew up in Calci , in the Villa Rosselmini , initially attending schools in Calci and then continuing their studies elsewhere . Now they are all married and with families . Maria Teresa is an agronomist and still recently devoted herself to changing the arrangement of some of the plants in the garden and planting new ones . Lucrezia is an architect and we owe to her the latest restyling of all the apartments and Giuseppe who is a management engineer , follows all the organizational part of the farm .
The Mazzarosa family silently continues to grow, maintaining a great attachment to Villa Rosselmini, Calci and the territory.
Our thanks go to great-grandmother Laura for leaving us her home. We like to think that great-grandmother Laura from heaven is pleased with our continued efforts to keep alive her home, of which we are jealous guardians.
We hope you enjoyed our history. Welcome to Villa Rosselmini.
Mazzarosa Family
Calci (Pisa)