The complex of Villa di Bellosguardo rises near Lastra a Signa. It was carried out in the last years of the XVI century and it owes its name to it particular position of look-out on top of a hill. Its park represents on of the last Late-Renaissance parks in Tuscany.

The idea of Bellosguardo was born in line with the trend of the time by planning the garden and the villa as the complementary elements of a same structure and united by the same architectural principles. The project was carried out by the architect Giovanni Antonio Dosio who built the villa over the homonym hill and later built its suggestive park around it which was divided into terracings, "selvaggi" (places where plants grow naturally) and a "ragnaia", a small wood where nets for capturing birds could be put and they were just called "ragne".
The abbot Alessandro Pucci, the descendant of a noble family, had earned himself the hatred of the Medici because some of its members had participated to a conspiracy against the rulers of Florence. Once he inherited the manor house by his grandfather, Francesco Guicciardini, Pucci transformed it into a luxury residence with a park planned according to the taste of the time in order to recover his social position and to introduce his family in Florence's political life.
The works started in 1585. Besides the architect Dosio, also Giovanni di Bastiano Balducci and Romolo del Tadda participated. The first were given the task to carry out a cycle of paintings on the façade and in the rooms of the palace, while Romolo del Tadda performed the sculpture decorations of the park by representing a great variety of animals. It was meant to create a simile between this garden and the Garden of Eden. Both the paintings of the façade and many statues by Tadda have been lost. A camel near the southern entrance and works by other authors can still be admired. When the abbot Alessandro, died his brother Roberto took his place.
The villa, therefore, was handed down to another branch of the family and it was enriched with more sculptures. In the XIX century, the Campi bought it and, in 1906, it became a property of the famous tenor Enrico Caruso. The singer changed the structure of the complex to make the two buildings that compose it symmetrical and he furnished the villa with precious furniture.
In the XX century, Bellosguardo had many owners until 1995, when the municipality of Lastra a Signa bought it. The Count de Micheli had the merit to restructure the garden and to bring it back to its Renaissance layout.