Owing to its terraced layout along the lower slopes of the mountain, the Villa offers the peculiarity of having at least one access at ground level for six of its seven floors, the seventh being the top floor which is the old columbarium tower.

The following is an attempt at tracing the history of the owners from the 15^th century to the present:

In the year 1427 (first estate register) the house belonged to the Vinaccesi's who sold it in 1458 to an important powerful Florentine citizen called Dietisalvi Neroni, adviser of Piero dei Medici (son of  Cosimo il Vecchio and father of Lorenzo il Magnifico).  Neroni joined a conspiracy against the Medici  in 1466. When the conspiracy failed, the Canneto property was confiscated and later sold to Lorenzo Davanzati whose daughter Titta bore it in marriage settlement to Francesco Del Tovaglia. The Del Tovaglia owned Canneto for close to three centuries, from the end of the 15^th to mid 18^th century, except for a brief interruption in the late 16^th century when the Villa belonged to the Cavalcanti.  Francesco Del Tovaglia had ample alterations executed before 1480, afterwards describing the building as a "casa da signore con torre a modo di palagio" (mansion with tower in the fashion of a  palace). Francesco's son Tommaso Del Tovaglia, mentioned in Firenzuola's fable and certainly the owner in 1534, is  presumably responsible for the large scale readjustment works described above. The Del Tovaglia coat of arms is still above the main door of the south facade towards the garden. In 1740 the property went to Girolamo De Pazzi, whose daughter Teresa Benvenuta bore it in marriage settlement to Giuseppe Rucellai in 1759. His son Giovan Pietro Rucellai inherited the property in 1766.  (This note is based on writings by Carlo Paoletti and Aldo Petri in the book "Ville Pratesi" (1964) and on the wide research conducted at the end of the 1970s by C.Cerretelli, M.Lucchesi and A.Tempestini for the Architecture Faculty of Florence University.)