Resulting from numerous architectural interventions carried out during its over eight centuries of life, Villa Pitiana was built over the ruins of an ancient thirteenth-century monastery, part of whose structure it still retains. With a cloister, a chapel in Rococo style and a library possessing a collection of antique prints and books, the Villa still retains the peaceful atmosphere that made it, in the past, a favourite place of eminent personages. It is said in fact that in this place Petrarch found poetic inspiration.

Today the Villa is a hotel facility in which the ancient fascination of the structures is accompanied by all of the comforts of modern equipment. Among the amenities offered tourists, not the least is the chance to admire, in the immediate vicinity of the building, the splendid arboretum boasting numerous plants such as Cedars of Lebanon, of Atlas, and of the Himalayas, sequoias, horse chestnuts and other beautiful species. Each tree is accompanied by a caption with its Italian name, its Linnaean definition and a brief description.