A neoclassical beauty above the Oltrarno with a real story of jealousy.
 
The villa was built between 1865 and 1870 by the wonderfully named Baron Gustave Oppenheim, scion of the German banking dynasty, as a luxury residence for his young bride Eugenia Fenzi.
 
Designed by architects Pietro Comparini and Giuseppe Poggi, the neoclassical mansion has colonnaded facades, frescoed ballrooms, gilded salons, and formal gardens designed viewed from every window. The interiors are really quite bling with Carrara and Siena marble, Murano glass chandeliers, ebony furnishings, and silk from the prestigious Fréres Braquenie d'Aubusson factory.
 
It has a Hall of Mirrors, its trompe l'oeil frescoes and vast gilded surfaces, because the banker was so in love! (read the interesting facts...)
 
After the fall of the Second French Empire in 1870, Empress Eugénie de Montijo, widow of Napoleon III, acquired the villa and transformed it into a  meeting place for Florentine nobility.
 
In 1894, industrialist Egidio Cora purchased the property, lending it his name. The villa became a grand hotel in the late 1960s and underwent a three-year restoration, reopening in 2010 as one of Florence's most historically significant luxury residences.
 
Interesting facts...
Baron Oppenheim was so consumed by jealousy over doubts of his wife's fidelity that he planned to burn the villa to the ground,  he was actually stopped by authorities and forced to flee Florence, selling the property. Eugenia was actually unfaithful ironically with a guest, hence the upset.  She ran away to England with her lover and married him. She was pregnant with the Baron's so and I believe she brought him up. Honestly, it should be  a Netflix mini series 
 
The composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky stayed here during his Italian travels in the 1880s, reportedly finding inspiration for his orchestral suites in the villa's music salon.
 
Grace Kelly was a guest in the 1960s, drawn by the privacy and the villa's proximity to the Boboli Gardens. The Imperial Suite is dedicated to Emperor Akihito of Japan, who stayed here during Giuliano Cora's ownership.  Cora was an ambassador of Florence to the world and welcomed heads of state. Enver Pasha, the Ottoman military leader and one of the "Three Pashas" who ruled the late Ottoman Empire, was entertained here in the early 20th century.
 
The French composer Claude Debussy visited the villa during Eugénie's tenure, performing in the music rooms that overlook the gardens. 
 
Location: Viale Machiavelli 18, Oltrarno, Florence, Italy