Thursday Doors 17/6/21: Villa Cetinale 2.

• Manja Maksimovič

Three weeks ago we had a look at Villa Cetinale in Sovicille near Siena from one side, here it is from the other with some of its garden doors and gates.

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As we established in the first Thursday Doors post from this visit, the villa is empty – or at least it was three weeks ago when I visited – and is waiting just for you to rent it. You could play hide and seek for a month and still not discover everything these gardens have to offer.

The villa is bolted shut and we didn’t get to tour the interior, except for a little room in one of the adjacent buildings as you will see at the end of the post. Its doors and shutters are all dark green, and the theme continues throughout the gardens.

I wish I had more time for them because it would have been hard to get me out of there if I hadn’t had two more garden tours booked that morning. I might have even climbed that surprisingly tall Santa scala (Holy Stair) in the back of the garden, just not on my knees every day, as a sinful cardinal was ordered to do by the Pope. Read more about its history and see its interiors on the Villa’s website.

I will probably do another non-door post from here with just the garden photos, two of which you could already see in My green post.

While the front of the villa was sunnier and more impeccable, now welcome to the dark side.

  • Hi, villa. You are mighty cinematic, just the light is wrong.
  • A different angle but it doesn’t help.
  • I had to wait for some people to descend.
  • Then I climbed it too.
  • Left-hand side.
  • Centre.
  • Right-hand side.
  • With a portion of the gardens.
  • Let’s move on.
  • Also a kind of door.
  • A look back. So idyllic.
  • Through the first gate on the left even though I could continue.
  • Yes, all the way up the Holy Stair. But I didn’t.
  • There are many such tunnels. What fun kids could be having here! (What kids? Well… yours!)
  • I went through one. I should have made a video to show the effect.
  • Then I noticed I was not alone. Many lovely green doors were strategically placed throughout.
  • They were luring me to stay around a bit longer, but another garden was waiting.
  • Sorry, doors. You are really lovely but I have to go.
  • Beauty needs maintenance too.
  • Ahh. I could stay parked in front of this one for a while.
  • I started to look around if I would spot a little girls’ room.
  • I had to ask and they showed me the door. It was the important one from my first post.
  • In there I found this closet. I tried not to snoop around too much. Luckily I was in a hurry.
  • As I was leaving, it was sunny again in front. Funny that. Bye, pretty villa, who knows when we meet again.

For Thursday Doors challenge hosted by Dan at No Facilities

This day in my blogging history

  • 2014: In solitude it was possible for her to get the greatest enjoyment from the presence of the man she loved.
    ~Milan Kundera

    2015: Never mind mind, essence is not essential, and matter does not matter.
    ~Nelson Goodman
  • 2016: Cars in B&W (Why? I’m no good at it. I need colours!)
  • 2016: A Fiat 500 meet. (That’s better.)
  • 2017: Rotating suns

55 thoughts on “Thursday Doors 17/6/21: Villa Cetinale 2.”

  1. Great doors but I just love this Villa. Some Romanesque Baroque buildings can be over fussy/decorative but this is simple and yet important looking.

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  7. These are great doors and what you shared of the gardens is lovely. I like the picture of those back stairs, but perhaps a good choice not to climb, especially if you had more tours to make. Thanks for telling me that these were green. It’s a tricky color for me. I love the stairs you did climb. Good to be treated to a door at each portion. I also really like the garden tunnels 😊

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    1. Thank you, Dan! 🙂 As you can see, it was quite a visit. One of the doors is actually grey, the maintenance one. And a couple of gates are black. This was an open-door day, as I say, but I hope I can return with more time to be had. Still not sure about that hill in the back… even though the view from up there must be magnificent.

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  8. What an impressive villa. The front is very pretty but I really like the angels of the stairs on the back. You captured some super shots and I don’t blame you for not venturing up those ‘heavenly’ stairs.

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  16. Such a beautiful villa. My imagination is going wild as to how it looks on the inside. Looks like they take really good care of the gardens, and those tunnels looks like a good adventure. Fabulous post.

    Pat

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    1. Oh Pat, did you click on the link in my post that leads to the villa’s website? You can see it from the inside there. I’ll do another post from the gardens sooner or later. It’s really beautiful there. Thank you!

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      1. I just did, my goodness! Beautiful. I also see it’s available for renting.. you and 26 or 19;of your closest friends🙂. Wow! Looking forward to your other post🙂.

        Pat

        Liked by 1 person

  18. Beautiful photographs Manja and the post itself. Made me feel like I was on the walk as well. Some of those photographs made me want to do a painting of them- the green door with the lavender flowers in front, the path with the arch of green.
    Thank you for sharing this. Had an opportunity to visit Sienna again.

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    1. This sounds wonderful, Smitha, and having you here again is wonderful too. Thank you so much! I love to take you on a walk with me, and I love it that you wish to paint some of the views. This villa is not too far from Siena but this time I didn’t go there even though it’s always lovely when I do. I wish you a good summer!

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  19. Thank you Manja. I’m happy to be here. When I paint one of the pictures from here, I’ll let you know. We’re having monsoons here which is the rainy season. Thank God, summer has ended.🙂

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  20. What an impressive collection of doors Manja!! And the Villa is amazing, much to find there while sneaking around 😁 I love the Tunnels and I understand why you didn’t climb all the way up the Holy Stair, that image is for sure best taken from below.

    I’m late with “Malta doors” but hope it’s okay to post any day of the week. I’ll check Dan’s website. Take care!!

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    1. Thank you kindly, Anita. I like the idea that the photo from above couldn’t possibly be better. 😉 If you post today, it will be still included in this week’s Thursday Doors. I think Dan has the challenge opened three more hours…

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