The star of the “succession”: Villa Cetinale in Tuscany

While Succession is never short of sturdy backdrops, usually those that cut through floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the concrete jungle. But on occasion, The Roy’s takes us overseas to Icelandic rehab centers, enchanting European estates and beyond. And the third season was no different, with the star of the series being Villa Cetinale, a 17th-century villa located just outside Siena in Tuscany.

Originally designed by Baroque Roman architect Carlo Fontana and built by Cardinal Flavio Chigi for Pope Alexander VII in 1680, the estate is overtly beautiful but, like the spectacle, has a past riddled with scandals.

As Joseph Forsyth, an English traveler, noted in 1800: “Cetinale… owes its rise and fame to the remorse of a cardinal in love who, to appease the ghost of a murdered rival, transformed a dark plantation of oaks. in a penitential retreat and acted in it. , all the austerities of an Egyptian hermit. “

Later inherited by the pope’s son Cardinal Flavio Chigi, prince of the Holy Roman Empire, the Cetinale remained in the family until 1977. After Chigi’s death, Antony Lambton, the 6th Earl of Durham, and his companion Claire Ward, acquired the property, calling on architect Bolko von Schweinichen and interior designer Camilla Guiness to restore Cetinale to its former glory. Another scandal, however, erupted soon after when Lambton fell from an important political career involving a brothel incident, making the villa his place of refuge and attracting all the more media attention.

It has since hosted such guests as Mick Jagger, Rupert Everett, Kate Moss, English aristocrats, and more. And now the three story mansion is available for private hire. About $ 27,000 per week, it can accommodate up to 27 people and includes a chef, waiters, housekeeping and more, like a Roy would expect.