Villa Simoneschi Chianciano Terme

Villa Simoneschi, an ancient private villa dating back to around 1830, is situated in the immediate vicinity of the historical centre of Chianciano Terme. The three-storey building, entered through a monumental gateway on Via Dante, stands at the centre of a fine garden filled with flowers: most notably rose bushes, but also some quite rare plants such as Hibiscus syriacus (known in English as "blue bird" or shrubby mallow), Lippia citriodora (lemon verbena), Osmanthus fragrans (fragrant, or tea olive), Ruscus hypoglossum (butcher's broom) and Paeonia officinalis (peony). From the entrance, a Neoclassical chapel is seen to the right, with a huge Lebanon cedar towering beside it like some monumental belltower; on the opposite side is a stone fountain with spring water. A few steps lead down to the shadier, more private part of the park: a formal garden with tall trees. The forecourt to the south of the villa is dominated by a fine fountain, at the centre of a pool with an elegant lobe-shaped surround in an area paved with local stone, and with four unusually designed benches, also in stone, around the perimeter. At the end of the forecourt, towards Mt. Cetona and the valley below, is an impressive panoramic terrace, whose classical-style parapet has stone balustrades, beneath and to the sides of which are the former lemon house and the Gardener's Lodge respectively. Villa Simoneschi's garden contains over thirty different types of shrubs and hedges, and features flower-beds edged in stone; there are various species of tree in the park, including Acer negundo (box elder), Taxus baccata (common yew), Cotinus coggygria (smoke bush) and Prunus cerasifera (cherry plum).