Villa Borromeo owes its name to the famous family to whom Cardinals Carlo (canonized in 1610) and Federico belonged, who ordered its construction in the Tuscan countryside at an unknown period and owned it until 1704.

Even if the date in which the villa was built is still unknown, it is certain that in 1456 it already existed. In fact, Saint Antonino, then bishop of Florence, stayed there right in 1456.

Following the famous "Pazzi conspiracy", the villa, which was part of the dowry of Giovanni Borromeo`s daughter, who married Giovanni Pazzi, was given to a secondary branch of the Borromeo family, whose members supported the Medici.

In 1704 the Capponi family owned a half of the villa; then they acquired the whole estate, where they ordered the building of an interesting chapel.

As reported in a commemorative plaque, in 1848 Antonia of Bourbon, Grand Duke Leopold II`s wife, took refuge in the villa - surrounded by a beautiful Italian garden - with her court and children in order to escape the Risorgimento uprisings.