ALESSANDRA MARCHETTI, PATRICIA OSMOND with MICHELE AMEDEI / Nina Auzias and Leo Stein from Montparnasse to Settignano

Alessandra Marchetti and Patricia Osmond with Michele Amedei
Nina Auzias and Leo Stein from Montparnasse to Settignan, 2025
Paperback with flaps, 32 pages
17.1 x 23.8 cm
Centro Di

The fourth book in the series introduces us to the life, related here for the first time, of Nina Auzias, a street singer in Montparnasse, who in 1914 joined her lover Leo Stein in Settignano to begin a long and troubled relationship with the man she passionately loved. From Villa Doccia, where Leo, after the break with his sister Gertrude, had brought his fabulous collection of Renoirs and Cézannes, we follow them to Villino Rosa, where they established themselves after their marriage in 1921, and then to Villa del Rossellino, their refuge during the terrible years of World War II and the Nazi occupation of Settignano. We meet other expatriates whom the couple frequented on the hills of Florence — Mary and Bernard Berenson, Ned and Peggy Bruce, Hutchins Hapgood and Neith Boyce — and noted Italian and foreign artists. And finally, we accompany them through the last years of the 1940s, suffering physically and economically, but bound to one another by what they both felt was a strange and inexplicable destiny, until Nina, alone after the death of her beloved "Steiney" can no longer bear her grief and solitude.

On the hillsides of Fiesole and Settignano, overlooking the city of Florence, the beautiful villas and gardens evoke memories of their former owners and residents—many of them American, British, and European women expatriates who made their homes here in the late 1800s and early 1900s, attracted by Florence’s artistic treasures, the Renaissance ideal of villa life, and the quiet, harmonious landscape. This series Our Hillsides. Women Expatriates and Their Villas and Gardens on the Hills of Florence 1890-1950 aims to revive and enrich these memories by recounting the stories of a group of independent and talented women: Mary Berenson, Catherine Jeanne Ghyka, Florence Blood, Vernon Lee, and Nina Auzias Stein. Drawn chiefly from contemporary sources—letters and diaries, novels and poetry, drawings and photographs—preserved in library and archival collections across the continents, much of this material is published now for the first time.

Although there are notable exceptions, most of the women expats in our group belonged to a well-educated and well-traveled élite, intent on pursuing their interests in art, literature, philosophy, or music while enjoying the teas, dinners, and social connections offered by what Mary Berenson called "our hillside". But our sources also provide fresh insights into their personalities, friendships, romances, and rivalries, as well as the challenges of managing their households and designing and caring for their gardens. Moreover, in the years following World War I, we see the disruptive effects of national and international events on their hitherto relatively tranquil and secure lives, and during World War II, the severe hardships and life-threatening dangers endured by those who could not leave their hillside homes or who, despite all, chose stoically to remain.