Often considered the most splendid of them all, it was designed by Giuliano da Sangallo for the great art patron Lorenzo de' Medici. Many of the present furnishings date from the 19th century, when this was united Italy's first royal residence. There are lovely frescoes by Pontormo, and outside is a gigantic garden replete with grottoes, statues and fountains.

In front of the villa there is a garden redesigned in the nineteenth century. The villa has an unusual "H" –shaped ground plan which stands on a porticoed base. A loggia (portico) with Ionic columns and a broad pediment with a glazed terra-cotta frieze by Andrea Sansovino (the original is in a room inside) is situated at the center of the harmonious classical facade. The double curving staircase was added in the late eighteen century to replace the original rectilinear flights of stairs. Of particular note in the marvelously furnished interior is the splendid "Salone di Leone X" (which takes its name from the famous pope, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent) with important sixteenth-century frescoes: episodes from Roman history, with obvious allusions to the life of Lorenzo, were begun by Andrea del Sarto and finished by Alessandro Allori. The finest work, however, is the lunette frescoed by Pontormo, depicting the rural divinities Vurtumnus and Pomona, one of the masterpieces of Florentine Mannerism. The most evo cative of the country idylls so delightfully described in the verses of Lorenzo il Magnifico.

The trip carries on towards Carmignano where it one can see the villa "La Ferdinanda". The villa was designed by Buontalenti in 1594 as a "hunting lodge" for Ferdinand I, since it lay in the vicinity of the vast private hunting reserve (hundreds of hectares on Monte Albano), set aside by Cosimo I.

The most striking element is the host of chimneys (which has earned it the name of "Villa of the hundred chimneys") which, like so many miniature towers, add a note of gaiety to the austere facade. Actually there are only forty, and each one corresponds to a specific room. tours, tuscany, italy, excursion, florence, excursion, lorenzo, ferdinando, la petraia, la ferdinanda,

The famous series of lunettes by the Flemish painter Giusto Utens which depict the Medici villas were in the main room which is at present primarily used for lectures, conventions and banquets.

Typical Lunch in the medieval hamlet of Artimino.

Originally a medieval castle, it was redesigned in 1575 by Buontalenti, for Ferdinand I de' Medici. Its graceful inner courtyard, a groundbreaking innovation at the time, was covered with a glass roof by Italy's first king, Vittorio Emanuele. That's a shame, but we can be grateful to the king for removing the heavy coat of whitewash applied by Napoleon's troops over the fresco cycle that narrates the Medici family history. Amazingly, Petraia's most spectacular feature is its vast gardens, which are especially wonderful in May when hundreds of rose bushes spring into bloom.

Villa La Petraia was formerly a castle of the Brunelleschi family, and in 1575 it passed to Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici who had Buontalenti completely renovate the structure. Of particular beauty is the great entrance court: covered with a glass skylight in the nineteenth century so it could serve as a ball room, it houses a series of frescoes by Volterrano (17th cent.) depicting the pomp of the house of Medic. Elected as his summer residence by Victor Emmanuel II, the villa still has richly furnished period rooms (an odd collection of parlor games is also on view).

The building overlooks an Italian-style garden laid out by Tribolo, who also designed the famous fountain of "Fiorenza Emerging From the Water" sculpted by Giambologna. Nurseries, hothouses and basins are scattered throughout the "terraces", with their geometrically patterned boxwood hedges. The spacious English park stretches between the villa of the Petraia and that of Castello, and is characterized by its dense groves of holm-oaks, cedars, pines, plane trees, conceived by the Bohemian landscape artist J. Fritsch, for the Lorraines.

In the 14th century, this villa was called Il Vivaio (The Greenhouse). Purchased by the Medici, and later destroyed by the Florentines during the family's banishment, it was rebuilt by Cosimo the Great, who commissioned Giorgio Vasari for its classical Renaissance design. The Accademia della Crusca, whose official raison d'être is to monitor the purity of the modern Italian language, now resides in the villa, but you will visit the gardens, which Vasari called "the richest, most magnificent and ornate in all of Europe."