Built in the Palladian era, the original structure that is now the Villa Cipriani underwent some notable improvements in the 18th century. The first thing we can say with certainty about the Villa dates back to 1889, when the English poet Robert Browning acquired it. During his ownership, the palace gradually took on the Florentine atmosphere that merges so well with the gentle hills of Asolo. After a few months his son, Robert Wiedemann Barret Browning, who settled permanently in Asolo, inherited the Villa. In 1902 he sold it to an important family from Treviso. The Villa was for many years a serene country estate, used for summer holidays and hospitality, until when the family ceded it and had been transformed into a country hotel named “Belvedere”. At the beginning of the ‘50s, the property again changed hands. The famous Irish family Guinness, already the proprietors of a nearby property, acquired the Villa, preserving it as a country inn. In 1962 the Guinness family passed the management to Giuseppe Cipriani, the famous founder of Harry’s Bar and Cipriani in Venice, who oversaw the transformation of the inn into a charming and refined small hotel, thenceforth known as Hotel Villa Cipriani. Villa Cipriani was acquired by Ciga Hotels in 1974, and in 1995 by Sheraton and after that by Starwood Hotels & Resorts. In 2012 the Villa was purchased by Massimo Zanetti, owner of the group Segafredo, who gave it back a touch of family charme, that makes it different from a standard hotel.