Built around 1300, the Florence estate was once owned by the family of Francesco del Giocondo, who ... [ ] commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint a portrait of his wife, Lisa Gherardini—the Mona Lisa.

In itself, the portrait of a demure and modestly dressed young woman could easily be glossed over. The subject, a Florentine housewife called Lisa who married at 15 and became a mother of six, was from the noble farmland-owning Gherardini family, but far from ostentatiously wealthy and certainly not famous.

Nor was it seen as a particularly big deal at the time that a local artist called Leonardo, in need of some income, accepted a private commission by Lisa’s husband, Francesco, to paint her likeness.

Yet through the happenstance of history—mixed with a fair smattering of hubris, Bansky-level hype and, four centuries later, a heist that saw Pablo Picasso (wrongly) arrested for the painting’s theft—the portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, to use her married name, has become THE most famous portrait in the world.

And its subject—with her look of, what, beguiling beauty? Bemusement? Boredom? (Da Vinci’s ensuing and more lucrative side hustles meant the painting took years to finish, so she must have had her doubts)—is forever immortalized as the “Mona Lisa”.

The pedigree property, with its formal gardens, vineyard and olive treest, resides on 67 acres of ... [ ] Scandicci countryside.

And so then to Villa Mona Lisa. The 15-bedroom, 30,000-square-foot, peach-colored villa that presides over 67 acres of private vineyards, olive groves and formal gardens a few miles outside central Florence is now on the market for €18 million, presented by Italian luxury........

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