An avenue,
lit all
the way.
Villa La Fonte
A villa on the hills at Florence with a cypress avenue running down from the house and the valley open in front of it. June 2024: one long table on the lawn, the avenue lit after dark, and a gelato cart at midnight.
The avenue
is the venue
Every villa on these hills has a garden. This one has a drive, and the drive is the set piece: a straight line of cypresses with the house at one end and nothing at the other.
What makes it worth a page is that it gives you two completely different photographs from the same fifty metres. In daylight it is a corridor of shade with the valley at the end of it; lit after dinner it is the only bright thing for a mile, and people walk down it all night.
Florence, in general- Where it is
- On the hills at Florence, about twenty minutes from the centre. The limiting factor is never the distance, it is the last stretch of the drive.
- The shape of the day
- Getting ready inside, the ceremony and the drinks in the garden, one table on the lawn, and the avenue lit for the rest of the night.
- Best months
- May, June, September and early October. In June the useful light on these hills comes earlier than people expect, so a ceremony set too late loses the valley it was chosen for.
- What I have shot here
- One wedding, in June 2024.
Everything on this page comes from days I photographed there. For the house’s own rules, capacity and availability, ask the venue.
Thinking about
Villa La Fonte?