Medici Villas

Back in the early Renaissance Medici were among the first to discover the joys of escaping the stone canyons of the city for the pleasures countryside. Many of the villas doubled as farms and hunting lodges. In the 17th century, Giuso Utens painted a series of lunettes of all of them with their gardens, now in the Palazzo Vecchio. In 2013, UNESCO placed them all on the World Heritage List.

The Elder Cosimo created the first, by commissioning his favourite architect Michelozzo to convert the family's 14th-century castles in the Mugello into residences, beginning with the Villa Medicea del Trebbio and the Villa Medicea di Cafaggiolo. Michelozzo also built Cosimo's beloved Villa Careggi, much closer to Florence, which became famous as the setting of the Platonic Academy.