Villa Gamberaia

Built in the early 1600s by the Florentine merchant Zanobi Lapi, Villa Gamberaia rises on the hillside of Settignano above Florence, its ochre facade and iron-grilled windows looking out over the Arno valley. The gardens below have drawn artists and architects for centuries, their quiet formality earning the villa a lasting place in the history of Italian landscape design.

Inside, terracotta floors and vaulted ceilings run throughout, bedrooms finished with curated wall niches holding old books, marble spheres, and small curiosities. A red-walled gallery room lines its walls with antique engravings of Italian cities beneath a crystal chandelier, while a nearby library holds its collection behind wire-mesh cabinet doors. The grand salon carries frescoed wall panels and an antique cabinet displaying blue-and-white porcelain beneath a wrought-iron chandelier, and a spiral iron staircase climbs to a private loft in one of the bedrooms.

Outside, the villa's famed parterre unfolds in mirrored reflecting pools and precisely clipped hedges, a design considered among the most significant of its kind. Stone terraces trace the hillside beyond, balustrades lined with urns and statues framing views toward Florence and the hills. The gardens hold their centuries of quiet still, largely unchanged since they were first laid out.