The Star Of ‘Succession’: Tuscany’s Villa Cetinale

While Succession is never short on lusty backdrops, they’re usually those through floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the concrete jungle. But on occasion, The Roy’s take us overseas to Icelandic rehabilitation centers, enchanting European estates, and beyond. And season three was no different—with the star of the show being Villa Cetinale, a 17th-century villa located just outside of Siena in Tuscany.

Originally designed by the Baroque Roman architect Carlo Fontana and built by Cardinal Flavio Chigi for Pope Alexander VII in 1680, the estate is overtly beautiful but—much like the show—has a past riddled with scandal.

As Joseph Forsyth, an English traveler, noted in 1800: ​ “Cetinale…owes its rise and celebrity to the remorse of an amorous cardinal who to appease the ghost of a murdered rival transformed a gloomy oak plantation into a penitential retreat, and acted there, all the austerities of an Egyptian hermit.”

Later inherited by the pope’s son, Cardinal Flavio Chigi, a prince of the Holy Roman Empire, the Cetinale remained in the family until 1977. After Chigi’s death, Antony Lambton, the 6th Earl of Durham, and his partner Claire Ward, acquired the property, enlisting architect Bolko von Schweinichen and interior design Camilla Guiness to restore Cetinale to its former glory. Another scandal, however, erupted shortly after when Lambton fell from a prominent political career involving a brothel incident, making the villa his place of safe haven—and drawing that much more media attention.

Since, it’s hosted guests such as Mick Jagger, Rupert Everett, Kate Moss, English aristocrats, and more. And now, the three-story mansion is available for private rental. Approximately $27,000 per week, it sleeps up to 27 people and comes with a chef, waiters, housekeeping, and more—as a Roy would only expect.