The Contini Bonacossi Family

In the early part of the twentieth century Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi with his wife Vittoria and sons Augusto Alessandro and Vittorina returned to Italy from Spain, where he was dedicated to the antiques market of the highest level that allowed him to start putting together his own private arts collection which would later become one of the largest private collections of Italian paintings, sculptures, furniture and ceramics. After his death, he bequeathed the core of this exceptional collection to the Italian State, today forming an integral part of the Uffizi Gallery. It is preserved in ten halls, open by appointment only. In the 1920s, Alessandro bought the property Capezzana, then expanded with the purchase of the two neighbouring farms "The Poggetto" and "Trefiano" from marquis Aman Niccolini. The Capezzana Estate was born: divided into 3 estates and more than 120 poderi (land plots), dedicated to the production of high quality wine and olive oil. Alessandro, the passionionate collector that he was, had the foresight to hold back a number of bottles, meaning that today Capezzana boasts a collection of historic vintages dating back to 1925. In 1945 Augusto Alessandro was joined by his son Ugo, a war veteran and graduate of agriculture, who gradually steered the direction of the estate away from sharecropping towards a more modern style company.