Built in the Palladian era by an unknown
architect, the original structure that is
now the Villa Cipriani underwent some
notable improvements in the 18th century.
The first thing we can say with certainty
about the Villa dates back to 1889, when the
English poet Robert Browning, already an old
man, acquired it. During his ownership, the
palace gradually took on the Florentine
atmosphere that merges so well with the
gentle hills of Asolo. A few months after
acquiring the property, Browning died. His
son,Robert Wiedemann Barret Browning, who
settled permanently in Asolo, inherited the
Villa.
In 1902 he sold it to an engineer from
nearby Treviso, Mr. Zennaro, for a
considerable sum. Zennaro intended to give
it to his daughter on the occasion of her
marriage to Sebastiano Galanti, a young
member of a wealthy family from the province
of Treviso. Villa Galanti was for many years
a serene country estate, used for summer
holidays and hospitality. On the death of
the patriarch of the family, the Galantis
ceded the Villa to the manager of the
Rifugio del Grappa. He transformed the
property into a country hotel and named it
“Belvedere”. At the beginning of the ‘50s,
the property again changed hands. The famous
Irish family Guinness, already the
proprietors of a nearby property, acquired
the Villa, preserving it as a country inn.
In 1962 the Guinness family passed the
management to Giuseppe Cipriani, the famous
founder of Harry’s Bar and Cipriani in
Venice, who oversaw the transformation of
the inn into a charming and refined small
hotel, thenceforth known as Hotel Villa Cipriani.
Figures well as part
of a luxury travel itinerary through Italy.
