In addition to providing a unique opportunity for post-doctoral study, Villa I Tatti grows much of its own food, including wine, fruit and olive oil, according to Edward L. Goldberg, an assistant professor of Fine Arts and a former I Tatti fellow. A delicious rissoto with wild mushrooms, often served for lunch, is the specialty of the house, he says.

The villa's social calendar is tame in comparison to Bernard Berenson's time, when I Tatti was the focus of the literati set, says Agnes Mongan, the former director of the Fogg Art Museum and curator of prints emeritus.

"B.B. was about five feet tall and weighed 98 pounds. He always had people around the villa, and you dressed every night for dinner. Specialists, older and younger, many in fields different from your own, made for electrifying conversation that spread your vision," she says.

Mongan, who also serves on the academic and financial committees that oversee I Tatti's operations, said that Berenson left the villa to Harvard because of its longevity, rather than give it to the National Gallery of Art, which was only 28 years old in 1959.

The university continues to carry out Berenson's mission of providing opportunities for scholars in any subject a Renaissance man might study, but focuses mainly on the humanities.

Maintaining I Tatti is a costly venture. Income from its approximately $10 million endowment covered less than half of the center's $1.2 million operating budget during the 1985-'86 fiscal year. Trying to make up the additional cost, coupled with compensating for the falling price of the U.S. dollar against the Italian lira, has forced the University to begin seeking outside grants and donations.

The success of past I Tatti fundraising efforts suggests that the center will raise sufficient revenue to keep the villa functioning, according to Mongan. Recent grants have enabled officials to renovate a former farmhouse adjacent to the main structure for additional library space.

Students interested in visiting Villa I Tatti can receive a guided tour or peruse its resources, provided they make an appointment. The estate not open to the general public. The center's mailing address is Via de Vincigliata 26, in Florence, Italy.

Across the Atlantic Ocean sits another Harvard structure almost equally as resplendent as Villa Tatti. Adjacent to the Danish Embassy in Georgetown, nestled among 16 acres of formal gardens, Japanese cherry trees and pebble covered paths, is a 19th-century brick mansion, which houses the Dumbarton Oaks Research Center and Library.

Donate to Harvard University in 1940 by Robert and Mildred Bliss, the estate includes three libraries containing over 130,000 volumes, including a library of rare landscape architectural source books, a research center, as well as fine collections of Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art.

The house has served as the site of several international conferences, including a meeting that established the principles later incorporated into the charter of the United Nations. It was also the inspiration for composer Igor Stravinsky's Dumbarton Oaks Concerto.

About 30 international scholars study and reside at Dumbarton Oaks each year, where they concentrate in one of three fields: Byzantine studies, Pre-Columbian culture or Landscape Architecture. Students completing doctoral or post-doctoral research receive about $9000 for their work.

"The center has proved itself very useful to both young and old scholars in providing a setting for their work, but more importantly, it has provided a community of peers for discussion and progress," says Angeliki E. Laiou, the Dumbarton Oaks professor of Byzantine History. "Most of the best Byzantianists in America have spent some time at Dumbarton Oaks."

One of the structure's highlights is an eight-room marble and teak wood paneled wing designed by the world reknowned architect Philip Johnson. Pre-Columbian jade, pottery and gold objects in the Bliss' collection are displayed there and open to public viewing. A vast assemblage of Byzantine coins, sculptures and ivories are showcased in another part of the house.

The estate also boasts one of the United States finest gardens, complete with 11 pools, nine fountains, blooming beds of flowers, a miniature Roman amphitheatre and shady arbor covered walks admist gurgling creeks and solid poplars.