Pratolino

In 1568, the infatuated Duke Francesco I built this charming Villa Demidoff Pratolino as a gift to his mistress, the beautiful Venetian Bianca Cappello, whom the rest of Florence hated as much as he loved.

Francesco commissioned Bernardo Buontalenti – artist, architect, and hydraulics engineer, nicknamed ‘delle Girandole’ (of the Catherine wheel) for the fantastic fireworks he made – to design the enormous gardens, and he made Pratolino the marvel of its day, full of water tricks, ingenious automata, grottoes with changeable scenery, musical waterfalls and organs and a famous menagerie, all of which greatly impressed Montaigne during a visit in 1581, who said it rivalled the fabled Mannerist Villa Este gardens near Rome. As for Bianca, he sent home this description:

According to the Italians [she] is beautiful. She has an agreeable and imposing face, and large breasts, the way they like them here…