This building is (Niccolò di Bernardo dei) Macchiavelli’s ‘Albergaccio’ (”rough country hotel”) near San Casciano, Val di Pesa where he spent his enforced exile from the Florentine republic and where he wrote his posthumously published ‘The Prince’ laying the foundations of political science. (Thank you Sandra for getting me to visit here).
The ‘albergaccio’ was, in fact, his family’s farm providing them with everything from wine to flour.
‘Il Principe’ (the Prince) was born here. Written in a matter of months in 1513 it changed irrevocably the way people thought about power and lay the foundations not only of political science but of the ideal modern state. Much maligned in certain quarters it is a book those who purport to rule over our lives should read.
Lounge. Is this where Machiavelli played ‘tric trac’ (a form of backgammon with his fellow countrymen?
From his letter to his friend Francesco Vettori: “Having eaten, I go back to the inn; there is the host, usually a butcher, a miller, two furnace tenders. With these I sink into vulgarity for the whole day, playing at tric-trac, and then these games bring on a thousand disputes and countless insults with offensive words, and usually we are fighting over a penny, and nevertheless we are heard shouting as far as San Casciano. So, involved in these trifles, I keep my brain from growing moldy, and satisfy the malice of this fate of mine, being glad to have her drive me along this road, to see if she will be ashamed of it.”
Dining room. There’s a fine restaurant reputed to be the oldest in Tuscany attached to the Albergaccio. Highly recommended with details at https://www.villamachiavelli.it/.
The writer of ‘Il principe’ in his little alcove.
How to keep warm in winter.
Kitchen-diner: renaissance style.
“To Niccolo Machiavelli who here pondered on the liberation of Italy and wrote his immortal works on the art of sustaining and defending States.”
