Settignano is a ''

frazione A ''frazione'' (: ''frazioni'') is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' ('municipality') in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidat ...

'' on a hillside northeast of

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, Italy. The little '' borgo'' of Settignano carries a familiar name for having produced three sculptors of the Florentine Renaissance, Desiderio da Settignano and the Gamberini brothers, better known as

Bernardo Rossellino Bernardo di Matteo del Borra Gamberelli (1409–1464), better known as Bernardo Rossellino, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor and architect, the elder brother of the sculptor Antonio Rossellino. As a member of the second generation of Renaiss ...

and Antonio Rossellino. The young

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...

lived with a sculptor and his wife in Settignano—in a farmhouse that is now the "Villa Michelangelo"— where his father owned a marble quarry. In 1511 another sculptor was born there,

Bartolomeo Ammannati Bartolomeo Ammannati (18 June 1511 – 13 April 1592) was an Italian architect and sculptor, born at Settignano, near Florence, Italy. He studied under Baccio Bandinelli and Jacopo Sansovino (assisting on the design of the Library of St. Mark ...

. The marble quarries of Settignano produced this series of sculptors. Roman remains are to be found in the ''borgo'' which some have claimed was named after ''Settimio'' or

Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; ; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through cursus honorum, the ...

—in whose honor a statue was erected in the oldest square in the 16th century, destroyed in 1944— though habitation here long preceded the Roman emperor. The name may be a corruption from the term ''Fundus Septimianus''.Nuova guida della citta di Firenze e d'altre citta' principali della Toscana
Presso Gaspero Ricci (1835) page 444. Settignano was a secure resort for estivation for members of the Guelf faction of Florence.

Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian people, Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so ...

and

Niccolò Tommaseo Niccolò Tommaseo (; 9 October 1802 – 1 May 1874) was a Dalmatian Italian linguist, journalist and essayist, the editor of a (''A Dictionary of the Italian Language'') in eight volumes (1861–74), of a dictionary of synonyms (1830) and other ...

both appreciated its freshness, among the vineyards and olive groves that are the preferred setting for even the most formal Italian gardens.

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

and his wife stayed at the Villa Viviani in Settignano from September 1892 to June 1893. While there, Twain wrote 1,800 pages including a first draft of ''

Pudd'nhead Wilson ''Pudd'nhead Wilson'' is a novel by American writer Mark Twain published on 28 November 1894. Its central intrigue revolves around two boys—one, born into slavery, with 1/32 Black American, black ancestry; the other, White American, white, bor ...

''. He said the villa "afford dthe most charming view to be found on this planet". In 1898, Gabriele d'Annunzio purchased the trecento Villa della Capponcina on the outskirts of Settignano, in order to be nearer to his lover

Eleonora Duse Eleonora Giulia Amalia Duse ( , ; 3 October 185821 April 1924), often known simply as Duse, was an Italian actress, rated by many as the greatest of her time. She performed in many countries, notably in the plays of Gabriele D'Annunzio and Henr ...

, at the Villa Porziuncola. Near Settignano are the Villa Gamberaia, a 14th-century villa with an 18th-century terraced garden, and secluded

Villa I Tatti Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies is a center for advanced research in the humanities located in Florence, Italy, and belongs to Harvard University. It houses a collection of Italian primitives, and of Chinese and ...

, the villa of Bernard Berenson, now a center of Italian Renaissance studies run by

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. In 2019 Carolyn McPherson said: "My family lived in Settignano in 1955 and 1956; I was 10. Many houses in the village were badly damaged, apparently by explosives. We were able to rent a villa about 1/4 of a mile from the entrance to the Villa Gamberaia. We were told that the Gamberaia had been headquarters for the Nazi command in Florence, and that the owner of our villa had been a collaborator with the Germans and thus was a ''persona non grata'' in the village. In 1955--10 years after the end of WWII--it was still possible to find large fragments of burned maps lying in the olive groves below the Gamberaia. We visited the famous gardens once; most of the trees and shrubs were dead, and the statuary broken". Settignano houses the parish church of Santa Maria Assunta with its artworks.

References

* Interview with Carolyn McPherson, Charlottesville, VA, 24 August 2019.
Official websiteVilla Gamberaia
architecture * Twain, Mark, '' The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories,'' introd. by

Malcolm Bradbury Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury, (7 September 1932 – 27 November 2000) was an English author and academic. Life Bradbury was born in Sheffield, the son of a railwayman. His family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 wit ...

(The Oxford Mark Twain, Oxford U. Press, 1996) {{Authority control Frazioni of the Metropolitan City of Florence Hilltowns in Tuscany Districts of Florence