Live the Tuscan life in Greenwich, Conn. by shelling out $13 million

Bloomberg

In 1900, two years before he would be named the president of American Radiator (the predecessor to American Standard), Clarence Wolley built a Tuscan-style estate in Greenwich, Conn. Now its latest owners, Andrew and Judith Ban, entrepreneurs who founded the wholesale jewelry line Leslie’s Jewelry, are putting the house on the market for $12.995 million after living in it for 25 years. (They bought the main house in 1991 for $2.9 million.)
“We’re leaving now because my daughter moved out to the city,” said Andrew Ban. “For just the two of us, the house is way too big.”
The ivy-covered home sits on 10.68 acres and is about an hour’s drive from midtown Manhattan. The main house has four bedrooms, and the adjacent guest cottage has another three. In total, the two houses have seven baths and one half-bath and include just over 11,000 square feet.
The main house has a solarium, four fireplaces, a formal dining room, and lavish entertaining spaces. “We did a lot of renovations,” said Ban. “Virtually everything in the house has been renovated.”
Similarly, Ban invested heavily in landscaping the terraced gardens and surrounding property, which contains a pool and poolhouse, Har-Tru tennis court, vegetable gardens, mature tree-lined allées, and secret grottoes. “I also built a four-car garage,” said Ban.
The $13 million price tag, which comes down to about $1,180 a square foot, is in line with nearby listings; just up the road is a 15,000 square foot home on 19 acres for sale for $21.5 million, or $1,400 a square foot. (The property in question also has tennis courts and horse stables.)
“To be frank with you, even though the house is too big for the two of us and from a practical standpoint [moving] makes sense,” said Ban, “I’m really going to miss this place.”