History
The Fattoria di Maiano, the origins of which date back to 1400, enjoys an enviable position amid the hills of Fiesole just 5 km from the historic centre of Florence. This area has seen the work of famous people such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Benedetto and Giuliano da Maiano, Boccaccio and many others. The Fattoria di Maiano, with its buildings and houses scattered around the countryside is nestled in the hills of Fiesole and Florence and, for centuries, has been a place where the stone has been quarried used to make the buildings in the city of Florence.
In 1844, Sir John Temple Leader, the son of a wealthy London industrialist, arrived in Florence. He bought land, the abandoned quarries, the village of Maiano with the Villa and numerous settlements scattered around the area, including the ruins of the Vincigliata Castle and the Villa i Tatti complex, which now belongs to Harvard University and is home to the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.
Sir John Temple Leader was passionate about travel and, after living for four years in Cannes, met his wife, Maria Luisa de' Leoni, from Lucca. With her he moved, like many Englishmen of his time, to Florence. Leader had studied at Cambridge and Oxford, where he was steeped in classical, medieval and humanist culture. This had resulted in his falling in love with a harmonious and romantic idea of the Middle Ages.
Among these Tuscan hills, he began a large neo-medieval renovation project which included extensive reforestation (about 80 hectares) with pine and cypress trees and intervention affecting all environments. He had Vincigliata castle rebuilt in its original style, expanded and modified the Villa di Maiano in Medici style and enlarged the village of Maiano - with its beautiful fifteenth century cloister, and once a cloistered convent - turning it into a farming community.
On the banks of the river Mensola, already mentioned by Boccaccio in his tales, he built the romantic Regina park (inaugurated by Queen Victoria on 12 April, 1893) and raised the sides of the quarry called the Colonne, given this name because it was here that Lorenzo the Magnificent commissioned major works including the columns for the Chapel of the Princes of the basilica of San Lorenzo and Michelangelo's Laurentian staircase. Between 1873 and 1893, he built the romantic Pond surrounded by 8 hectares of landscaped gardens. For his guests, he also transformed the stonemasons' paths into botanical trails, with rest stops and benches in the most scenic spots.
Temple Leader died in 1903 leaving no direct heirs. In 1917, his grandchildren, who lived in London, sold all the immense property “with locked gates” to Professor Teodoro Stori, the famous Florentine surgeon who had married Elisabetta Corsini, a member of the noble Florentine Principi Corsini family.
With the help of his wife, Stori continued the work of Temple Leader and boosted the agricultural sector. In 1929 the couple began an impressive reforestation project involving Monte Ceceri, echoing the style of Temple Leader. The mountain, which is 415 meters high, overlooks Fiesole on one side and the village of Maiano on the other, and is famous for its huge grey sandstone quarries and for having been, in 1506, the scene of Leonardo da Vinci's first manned flight.
The reforestation project affected over 46 hectares of land, thus completing, in 1960, the work of transformation and recovery of the abandoned quarries.
Teodoro and Elisabetta had no children and adopted their niece, Lucrezia Corsini, third daughter of Tommaso dei Principi Corsini, who inherited everything in 1961 following the death of Elisabetta.
Lucrezia, the widow of Count Giacomo Miari Fulcis, founder of one of the oldest Veneto families (with origins dating back to 1100) and a great innovator in the field of agriculture, with whom she had four children, continued to improve and innovate the farm, restructuring the houses, the villa of Maiano (in 2000) and, with the help of her children, dedicated the farm in particular to quality olive growing (over 17,000 plants with the entire production cycle performed within the farm itself) and introduced, starting in 1991, organic crop farming. Free-range pig breeding was also tried and tourist activities were started with accommodation, catering and guided tours. As regards olive growing, she introduced nitrogen processing and was among those who launched Laudemio onto the market, a high quality oil that is now shipped around the world and thanks to which the Fattoria di Maiano has received and continues to receive prestigious international awards. The Fattoria di Maiano, which occupies an area of over 270 hectares, combines farming with tourist hospitality and sports activities and also comprises a gourmet restaurant.
