La Scarzuola, the hidden treasure

After an hour of traveling that mostly consisted of slowly going up long, bumpy, winding roads we made it to our secret destination for the day. At Villa Pieve no one would tell us what today's field trip because they didn't want to spoil the surprise...the suspense grew greater and greater.

We ended up outside what looks like an old church and are told it was a Franciscan convent founded by St. Francis in 1218 that was so secret and rural not even the pope knows about it! I'm not sure how true the second part is, but the place sure has an interesting history.

The name of the convent comes from a marsh plant, scarza, that St. Francis used to build a shelter when he first came here. The church has been altered a few times but in its latest restoration, you can still see original 13th century frescoes of St. Francis and many other traditional components of the church in that time.

In 1956 this abandoned convent was purchased by an elitist architect from Milan named Tomaso Buzzi. Behind the convent he planned and constructed his "ideal city" of theatre buildings, an acropolis and miniature recreations of famous monuments from around the world.

In the picture above you can see the mini parthenon, pantheon, colosseum, pyramid, etc. Also in view is the large amphitheater that can seat a couple hundred people. Buzzi was an eccentric man and a short one too, so he made a lot of small buildings to his size and liking.

This includes a mini theatre of mirrors that holds only eight people, a theatre on the water and a theatre with no exit, only an entrance...

It was quite an interesting place and a stark contrast to the expectations of what one will see in a convent. So  I guess it was a good surprise! From the pamphlet we got from the tour guide: "the style that best interprets the license of this design is neo-mannerism: stairs in all directions, the deliberate disproportion of some parts, a few monsters, the heaping together of buildings and monuments, amounting to surrealism, something of the labyrinth, something evocative, geometric, astronomic, magic."

The best part of it all was that this was yet another place I never would have found or known to visit on my own!