We recently got to tour some of the more lavish Medici villas, and while our own little Villa Le Balze is gorgeous, these were insanely grand. A villa is meant to be a quiet country retreat for study and reflection, but the Medici family still felt style was a necessity - and trust me, it shows.
This is the outside of my favorite - the Villa La Petraia, just fifteen or so minutes from Fiesole. In front of the villa is a maze of stunning gardens, and we spent the afternoon lunching and browsing the terrain before we went inside to look around.
I'm a sucker for lemon trees. Get it?
When we finally did go inside, the grand ballroom totally took my breath away. Unlike most of the palaces we see here in Italy, the Villa had a totally different aesthetic, much cleaner and lighter. The frescos that covered the once open-air ballroom were painted completely in pastels, and a giant chandelier glistened in the middle of the room.
Interestingly enough, the doorways were lined with deer heads, as the family also used their country home as the ideal hunting spot. This decor risk produced a weirdly beautiful result, I must admit.
Getting to tour the rest of the rooms of the Villa was incredibly exciting. We saw lots of the aspects familiar to our own Fiesole home, but on a much grander scale. Touring the Villa made me realize a video or photo tour of the Villa Le Balze might be a fun thing to do for anyone interested in it. I'll do my best to put one together, whether it be a blog post or a Georgetown Stories video, as it's hard to do justice in just a few photos!
In the end, the beauty of the Villa's interior wasn't as exciting for us as its garden exterior, and we returned outside for - of course - more photographs.
This Wednesday marked one week left in Italy, and the time has absolutely gone by too fast. Hoping to make the best of my weekend in Florence by checking off all the rest of my bucket list.