Alii Horti II – From the Archives to Garden Stage July 2, 2026 / 17:45 – 19:00

Villa La Quiete / the restaured garden

“Alii Horti” is an all-female dance performance, directed by students, conceived by Associazione Il Palmerino through a grant from Calliope Arts Foundation, and choreographed by Sophie Robinson (University of Toronto). This performance pays tribute to the women connected to the long history of Villa La Quiete and follows the performance at Villa Pietra. This event is part of a larger three-year initiative ‘The Garden Project’ and included in the Estate Fiorentina 2026.

Giovanni da San Giovanni - La Quiete

Drawing on archival research and original musical composition by Artemis Skarmoutsos and others women composer, it weaves together the stories of four remarkable women who inhabited Villa La Quiete, tracing a lineage of female strength, sacrifice, and devotion to the arts. Historical research, choreography, and musical composition are developed in tandem, with the goal of communicating this story through movement. Woven into the work is the art of Elena Salvini Pierallini, a Florentine multi-medium artist presented with an exhibition at Il Palmerino as a frame that connects the several events in the series “Esplorazioni”.

Reservation required for limitate places: associazione@palmerino.it

Choregrapher:

Sophie Robinson

Dancers:

Celia Donoso Clemente, Margaret Dwyer, Camila Recabarren, Ava Renspie, Sophie Robinson

Music Composer:

Artemis Skarmoutsos (Viola)

Other music:

Florence Price. Luise Adolpha Le Beau, Barbara Strozzi

Costume Designer:

Matilda Ponsonby

Interns:

Sarah Drotleff, Camille Malgorn, Ally Ralston

Project Coordinator:

Federica Parretti

The Significant Women Who Lived at Villa La Quiete:

Christina of Lorraine

Christina of Lorraine was regent of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany after her husband died and in place of her son Cosimo II de’Medici from 1621 to 1628. She bought the villa in 1627, intending to make it a country house. In connection to the villa, she commissioned Giovanni da San Giovanni to create a fresco that embodied quieteness, titled “The quiet that Pacifies the Winds”, which is where the name La Quiete stemmed from. She was also very interested in science, as she corresponded with Galileo Galilei through letters. She was the recipient of the most important one of four Copernican letters from Galileo that argued the Copernican heliocentric system did not conflict with sacred scripture. She died on December 19, 1637.

Eleonora Ramirez de Montalvo

Eleonora, born in 1602 in Genoa, was an educator and writer originally from Spain. Eleonora moved in with her brother in 1626 and began devoting herself to the education of young orphans, eventually drafting a set of formal constitutions. She purchased the Villa della Quiete from the Medici family and moved there in 1650 creating the congregation “Ancille della Santissima Trinità”.

Vittoria della Rovere

Vittoria Della Rovere, the fifth Grand Duchess of Tuscany, fully embodied the culture of “purity” and made spiritual purity the goal of her life. This culture was undoubtedly passed down through the ecclesiastical education she received from her grandmother Christine of Lorraine. In 1634, Victoria married her cousin Ferdinand II. The marriage was not a happy one. Widowed in 1670, Vittoria devoted herself to protecting the Ancille congregation and began a period of major renovations at Villa La Quiete.

Anna Maria Luisa de’Medici

Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, born in 1667, was the last member of the Florentine family. Known as the Electress Palatine, she instituted the famous Patto di Famiglia, a legal contract ensuring all Medici art collections remained in Florence forever. After returning to Florence in 1716, Anna chose Villa La Quiete as her final residence. She renovated the villa La Quiete, expanded the grounds, and commissioned artists to decorate her apartments with frescoes of nature, exotic birds, and landscapes.