Tuscany Non Plus Ultra: Sammezzano Castle

It took me 4 years to visit this hidden Tuscan gem, called Sammezzano Castle. I had only one hour to visit it, but still it was worthy to visit Tuscany Non Plus Ultra. So finally here my pictures of Castello di Sammezzano!

TooMuchSammezzano

The Castle of Sammezzano is large building located on top of a hill in Leccio, very close to famous The Mall. It dates back to ancient times, passed by several famous owners until it was bought by Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona, who transformed a normal country house into a dreaming place.

In the second half of 19th century he rebuilt the palace and decorated it according to the artistic movement called Orientalism. Ferdinando turned every single room into a marvelous space, richly decorated and colored. Yellow and green tiles, wooden rainbow-colored ceilings, Eastern style doors and much much more.

Here you find some pictures and I hope you’ll like it!

TooMuchInformation

It’s almost impossible to visit this castle. Unfortunately nowadays it’s property of an Italian-English company, that aims to turn it into a luxury resort. By the way, at the moment everything it’s blocked and the castle opens couple of times per year thanks to a volunteer association.

A photo posted by Valentina Dainelli (@toomuchtuscany) on Jun 22, 2015 at 12:17pm PDT

  They generally open in late Spring – early Summer, but it’s almost impossible to know the exact date, since it depends on the owners’ approval. So if you want to visit Sammezzano I have some suggestions for you:

• Follow the dedicated Facebook Page and activate notifications, since the volunteer associations announce the openings on the page;

• Be in front of your computer 5 minutes before the reservation’s opening time – the 800 places available are literally going to be gone in 60 seconds;

• If you’re a large group of people (more than 50) try to contact the association and see if you can arrange it;

• When book your visit be sure to arrive at the castle  20 minutes in advance of reservation time. Please consider in your schedule, that you’ll need about 30 minutes of fast walking to reach the castle on top of the hill from the parking lot, located at the bottom next to The Mall.

A photo posted by Valentina Dainelli (@toomuchtuscany) on Jun 7, 2015 at 4:49am PDT