Sasso Mobile

Open only for guided tours upon request

An immense chestnut wood, a rare thing to find in the flatlands, is the backdrop for this 17th century villa which was named “The Quiet” by its builder, Abbot Belloni, because it was to provide a peaceful setting for him to live out his final years. The Abbot, from a family of Bolognese nobility, leveled two adjoining hills immersed in the tranquility of nature, with a view that extends all the way to Saint Luke’s in Bologna, as the grounds for his new home. The villa, externally of simple design, is graced by elegant wrought iron balconies and a central tower. It was later owned by the eccentric opera singer, Gardini Gestner, who turned it into a school for aspiring vocalists. They say that the power of the young students’ voices was subjected to stringent testing: while Gestner stayed in the main building, the pupil was sent several hundreds of meters away to a building known as the “coffee lodge.” Inside, beyond the vast arcade, a grand staircase leads to a series of rooms on two upper floors. The walls are decorated with painted pastoral scenes. Nowadays the Villa can be rented for private parties and the chestnut grove hosts the Festival of the Blonde Chestnuts of the Bolognese Hills on the second Sunday in October, with folk dancing, stands selling typical local products, fresh and roasted chestnuts.