Casa per la Pace is...
The Casa per la Pace is a historic 16th-century villa, now officially recognised as a historic residence, set in the Tuscan countryside and surrounded by cypress trees and olive groves, in the area internationally known as Chianti. A place of great charm and tranquillity, where historical value, landscape beauty and a natural vocation for hospitality come together.
The building is of high historical and artistic value and is protected by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage through the Superintendency for Cultural Heritage of the Tuscany Region. The main structure dates back to the Renaissance period and is enriched by one of the rare surviving examples of a contemporary hanging garden, a precious testimony to the villa’s original design.
In 1983, the last owner, Lucia de Vigilis Mattei, widow Sbisà, decided to donate part of the property to Pax Christi, so that the Movement could have a place in which to carry out its statutory activities: education for peace and nonviolence, integral disarmament, and care for Creation. Alongside these aims, the Casa has preserved and developed over time its role as a place of hospitality, open to those who wish to spend a period of stay in a peaceful, welcoming and restorative environment.
The donation was received by the then President of Pax Christi, Monsignor Luigi Bettazzi, followed two years later by Monsignor Tonino Bello, who envisioned the Casa as a place for “builders of peace” where, in words that still resonate today, one could “pitch tents in order to set out again along the paths of Isaiah.”
Since then, the Casa per la Pace has grown in both its activities and its hospitality thanks to the care and commitment of many people: travellers captivated by its beauty, volunteers who have looked after and continue to look after its daily life, supporters who have remembered it in their bequests, and all those who return over time, recognising it as a place able to welcome, inspire and renew.
Hospitality at the House of Peace
The House of Peace has always been a place where hospitality goes beyond the provision of a service and becomes a relationship based on care, attention, and shared responsibility.
Those who cross the threshold of the House are not simply guests, but people welcomed into a space that invites respect, sharing, and care for both time and place. Hospitality is understood as an encounter between different stories, sensitivities, and life journeys, lived with simplicity and authenticity.
For Pax Christi, welcoming people into its House also means sharing a way of looking at the world. During their stay, guests are given the opportunity to learn about the history of the movement, its core values, and its campaigns and initiatives for peace, justice, disarmament, the protection of human rights, and the care of Creation. This is not an imposed path, but rather an invitation to listen and engage in dialogue, offered with discretion and full respect for individual freedom.
The House is conceived as a lived and welcoming space, where encounters between different people become opportunities for mutual growth, genuine exchange, and concrete expressions of humanity. In this context, everyday witness — made up of choices, words, silences, and gestures — becomes an integral part of the experience of hospitality.
The House of Peace seeks to be a place where a sense of community can be rediscovered, where everyone can feel welcomed and valued, and where each person may contribute, according to their own abilities and sensitivities, to the building of a more just and peaceful world.
Over time, this understanding of hospitality has led the House of Peace to open its doors also to those experiencing moments of vulnerability, transition, or personal searching. Daily life in the House — shaped by simple gestures, shared work, and attentiveness to rhythms and relationships — thus becomes fertile ground for rebuilding trust, autonomy, and a sense of belonging.
The decision to also operate today as a historic residence stems from the desire to combine this deep vocation with a structured, sustainable form of hospitality that fully respects current regulations, without compromising the identity of the House. A historic place that continues to live, to welcome, and to generate human and social value, while preserving its original spirit.
At the House of Peace, hospitality is sober, authentic, and essential. It is an invitation to slow down, to rediscover the meaning of relationships, and to feel part — even if only for a short time — of a community that places the person, the dignity of work, the care of places, and respect for others at its heart.
The House of Peace aims to be an open space for the Other, where every individual can feel welcomed and valued along their personal, human, and relational journey, and where everyone is truly welcome.
Pax Christi and Casa
The Casa per la Pace is the headquarters of the National Secretariat of Pax Christi Italy, the International Catholic Peace Movement. It is the place where the Movement lives and works, giving concrete expression to its commitment to peace, nonviolence, justice and the care of Creation.
The Casa is a space of hospitality, dialogue and encounter, where members of Pax Christi, as well as parish and community groups, can come together to experience moments of spirituality and prayer, engage in training and study on peace and nonviolence, or simply share time, the quiet of the place and the beauty of the surrounding landscape.
Alongside the institutional activities of the Movement, the Casa also welcomes those who need a place to stay for a short visit, to explore the surrounding area, or to take time for rest and reflection, in a setting that is simple, welcoming and respectful of people and places.
Throughout the year, Pax Christi promotes at the Casa per la Pace workshops, meetings and educational, research and study programmes focusing on nonviolent conflict resolution, economics, social justice, environmental care and responsibility for the common good.
Today,
as in the past, the Casa per la Pace seeks to give concrete form to an enduring
dream of Pax Christi:
“a point of reference for pitching, repairing or building tents; an ideal
logistical gathering place that can help us all ensure that peace becomes a
permanent resident on Earth”
(Don Tonino Bello).
Support us
Your contribution to Pax Christi and Casa per la Pace can be given through:
- a deductible liberal supply: IT69z0501802800000011100005
- 5 per mille C.F: 94060130484
- the campaigns of the Movement
Let's talk together
Phone: 055 2020375 Email: Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. È necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.
Casa welcomes you!
The Casa per la Pace covers an indoor area of approximately 600 square metres. Its interiors are characterised by spacious and bright halls, enhanced by finely crafted fireplaces, rooms with coffered ceilings, and evocative sail and cross vaults, which reflect the historic character and sober elegance of the villa.
With four large halls and a fully equipped library room, the Casa offers suitable spaces for hosting and organising seminars, conferences, workshops and concerts, as well as family celebrations and private events, all within a quiet and reserved setting.
Accommodation is provided in 25 beds, distributed across single, double, triple and shared rooms, all with private bathrooms. Guests are welcomed into a warm and familiar environment, designed to ensure comfort, tranquillity and respect for privacy. A double room (also available for single use) accessible to people with disabilities, with a bathroom compliant with current regulations, is also available.
The hospitality offer is completed by a typical Tuscan-style apartment, fully equipped and enjoying a beautiful view over the Casa’s inner garden and the surrounding hills. It is ideal for families or for guests seeking greater privacy and an independent stay.
Within the Casa there is also a chapel, available to those who wish to take moments of reflection and prayer during their stay.
The property includes an Italian-style hanging garden of approximately 3,000 square metres and an adjoining plot of land of about 5,700 square metres, partly cultivated with olive and fruit trees and partly maintained as lawn. These outdoor spaces contribute to making the stay an experience of tranquillity and close contact with nature.
A large private internal car park allows guests to reach the Casa comfortably with their own vehicles.
All contributions made by visitors and guests of the Casa per la Pace are dedicated to supporting the initiatives promoted by Pax Christi, helping to keep the mission of the Casa alive.
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Casa for you
- stay overnight, with or without breakfast;
- enjoy lunch and dinner prepared with local ingredients and according to the typical recipes of Tuscan cuisine (menu details can be decided together and it is not a problem to take care of all intolerances, allergies or specific food needs);
- participate and / or organize cultural, professional and family events also with refreshment service;
- attend / organize summer camps and educational itineraries;
- attend / organize interreligious experiences;
- walk the "path of peace" inside the garden of the house, or several paths that starting from the house can rich the town of Impruneta or the hills around;
- Florence and the surrounding villages ( use a guide or a specific guided tour).
The House of Peace is a place that is lived in and cared for every day thanks to the commitment of a network of people who look after it with attention and dedication.
Barbara, Carolyn, and Suzana are a daily presence in the life of the House and support its functioning in all its aspects, taking care of welcoming guests and accompanying them throughout their stay. With discretion and openness, they introduce guests to the House of Peace, the Pax Christi Movement, and the initiatives that take place there, helping to create an atmosphere of listening, respect, and familiarity.
Alongside them, a wider group of collaborators also contributes to the management and care of the spaces, supporting hospitality and the everyday life of the House. This shared effort makes it possible to offer an authentic experience, attentive to both people and places.
Casa for Creation
Peace is not merely the absence of conflict: it is a harmonious relationship with oneself, with others, and with Creation. It is a delicate balance that is not proclaimed in words, but built through daily choices, concrete actions, and attentive care for the places we inhabit.
The House of Peace is rooted in and shaped by this vision. Nestled in the Florentine countryside, the House integrates into Creation with discretion, seeking to respect its features, rhythms, and forms. It does not dominate the landscape or force its transformation; rather, it welcomes it and allows itself to be welcomed. Its sober beauty is part of a conscious choice to inhabit the land without consuming it.
Here, care for Creation is not an abstract principle but a daily practice. The House adopts environmentally sustainable behaviors aimed at reducing waste and consumption: careful waste management through recycling, the use of efficient heating systems, and the adoption of renewable energy sources such as solar panels. Every intervention is designed to minimize environmental impact and to promote an essential and responsible way of living.
Food, too, reflects this same attentiveness. Guests are offered meals prepared using locally sourced ingredients and short supply chains, enhancing the region’s local produce while reducing the resources required for transportation. Whenever possible, the House also offers fruits from its own land, cultivated according to tradition and in respect of nature’s rhythms. Meals thus become moments of sharing, reconnection with the land, and gratitude for what it provides.
In this spirit, the House also invites those who stay there to feel actively involved in this shared responsibility. Guests are encouraged to adopt respectful behaviors toward the environment, the spaces, and the people, helping to preserve the balance and harmony of the place.
Entering the House means embracing a small covenant of care: toward Creation, toward others, and toward oneself.
Because here, peace is built in this way: step by step, gesture by gesture, in daily faithfulness to the land that hosts us.
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Casa is
Casa per la Pace is in the heart of the Tuscan countryside in a landscape characterized by the presence of fields of olive trees and ancient cypresses.
For geographical precision, it is located on the border between the Municipalities of Florence and Impruneta, near Baruffi, a small fraction of just over three hundred inhabitants that stands on a hill at about 200 meters above the sea level, just over a kilometer away from the village of Tavernuzze and about three and half kilometers from the Florence.
How to get
Reaching Casa per la Pase is easy!
By car: Via Quintole per le Rose that climbs the Baruffi hill originates on the Cassia state road just a short distance from the Impruneta exit of the A1 motorway (the Autostrada del Sole).
Once you leave the highway, you must proceed in the direction of Florence (third exit of the roundabout) taking Via Cassia for a few dozen meters and then turning right on Via di Quintole. Always keeping to the right, after about a kilometer, you find yourself in front of the entrance gate of the Casa per la Pace. The car can be parked inside the property in a comfortable and safe parking.
By public transport: from Florence Airport you can take the tramway, line T2 Vespucci, to the S. Maria Novella railway station in the centre of Florence, and then take line 37 of the ATAF buses (going up to the terminus of the station Orti Oricellari - Trattoria dell'Oste). The ticket required for the ride costs € 1.50 cents and can be purchased in tobacconists or authorized dealers (many newsstands for example). It can also be purchased on board, asking the driver for € 2.50.
It is also possible to purchase the ticket via SMS - with the text "ATAF" - at number 4880105, waiting for the confirmation message before boarding. The digital ticket costs € 1.80.
The journey by bus from Florence to Casa per la Pace takes about half an hour, the stop is "Le Rose".
A short but uphill walk of about a kilometer can allow you to reach the House, through a fascinating path, for some meters the same of the ancient Via Romea, surrounded by nature and history (on the road it is possible admire the small Church of San Lorenzo alle Rose which houses an altar table by the Giotto master Taddeo Gaddi)