The magical opening evening of a birthday weekend in the Tuscan hills, dressed head to toe in white.
The first evening of the weekend, and the most special of all: Petra’s actual birthday, in the hills above Florence with the most enchanting theme: White Starry Night. Everyone, everything, was dressed in white, despite the beautiful table cloth that was reminiscent of Toile de Jouy by Dior, her favorite brand.
The setting was Villa I Collazzi, roughly thirty minutes from the centre of Florence, along the old road to Volterra in the hills above Scandicci. Arriving felt like stepping straight into a dream. A long approach lined with cypress trees standing like sentinels, and then the villa itself, rising on its hilltop terrace, majestic and serene against the Tuscan sky.
This is no ordinary house. Villa I Collazzi is one of the most celebrated Renaissance residences in all of Tuscany, its design long attributed by local legend to Michelangelo himself and later carried to completion by Santi di Tito. Built for the Dini family in the sixteenth century and lovingly cared for by the Marchi family since 1933, it holds centuries of history in its stone loggias and Italian gardens. From the terrace, on a clear evening, you can even glimpse Brunelleschi’s dome shimmering in the distance.
As the sun softened over the vineyards, the guests began to gather, and the effect was pure enchantment. Everyone in white, glasses of chilled wine catching the last of the golden light, laughter drifting across the gardens. The dress code did something quite wonderful: it turned a party into a living tableau, elegant and timeless, as though we had all wandered into the same beautiful painting.
Dinner unfolded beneath the stars, the villa glowing softly behind us, the warm Tuscan air carrying music long into the night. Petra, radiant as ever, had set the tone for the whole weekend, the kind of evening that reminds you why these gatherings of dear friends matter so very much.
And this was only the beginning. The White Starry Night was the opening chapter of a birthday weekend I will treasure for a long time to come. More on that very soon.
LoL, Sandra
Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht
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