Harold Ozanne's maternal grandfather Frederick Searle returned to Europe after thirty years running plantations in the West Indies. In 1879 on a trip to Italy he came across the dilapidated ruins of Horace's summer residence some 30 miles outside Rome. It was for sale and almost on a whim he decided to buy it. The villa was originally constructed in 100 BC and some parts were rebuilt in 1583.  Frederick and his wife spent the next 20 years restoring the property. 

They died within a year of each other and in 1903 the property passed to their daughters Mary and Georgiana, as their son Frederick had recently died. Mary showed little interest in the villa; her husband had just died of yellow fever in the Gambia and possibly she found Sant'Antonio too cold and remote for her taste. 

But Georgiana showed much more interest as she was married to George Hallam, a brilliant classical scholar and a fellow of St John's College Cambridge.  He had a great interest in the works of Horace, they had even named their second son after him, and so Sant'Antonio held a special attraction. In 1906 he retired from his position as a school master at Harrow School and he and Georgiana assumed responsibility for Sant'Antonio.  They lived there for over 30 years. 

George died at Sant' Antonio in 1932 and Georgina in 1944. They had no surviving children as their eldest son Francis died had at the age of nine and their second son Horace had been killed in action in Palestine in 1917. So the ownership of the villa passed to Georgiana's niece and nephew Katherine and Harold Ozanne. But they had little interest in taking on the responsibility of the villa, so Katherine's daughter Lucy who had a huge affection for Sant'Antonio took over the project.  In 1926 she had married Numa d'Ailhaud de Brisis, a French count, and they moved to live in the villa. 

Sant'Antonio has passed down through Lucy's family to her son and grandchildren. It is now administered by the Landmark Trust and is available as a holiday let.