Pen Browning, son of the poets Elizabeth and Robert, wished his parents’ Florentine home, in which they had spent nearly all the happy and productive years of their marriage, to be recreated in their memory. He did not live to see his wish fulfilled, but it was remembered.

In 1971 the suite of rooms on the first floor of the Palazzo Guidi was acquired by the Browning Institute. Restoration began, with the eventual aim of refurnishing the drawing-room, a romantic literary sanctum recorded by the painter Mignaty after Elizabeth’s death in 1861. The familiar writer’s clutter of books and paper-burdened tables was here given a grand setting, of richly carved furniture and Renaissance paintings, mingled with comfortable sofas and armchairs, all bought by the Brownings with the excitement of a young married couple.

Casa Guidi is now owned by Eton College and leased to us. Parties of boys undergo its civilising influence at intervals but at all other times it is available for our visitors. The tall main rooms, with graceful eighteenth-century decoration, are furnished much as they were by the two poets. Like them, you can savour the agreeable and busy streets of Florence through Casa Guidi’s windows.

View our history sheet for this Landmark.

Sleeps: 2+4