The close connection between Man and Nature is one of the defining concepts of the Florentine Renaissance. Explore this connection by visiting five celebrated villa and garden complexes in the countryside near Florence: the two Medici villas of La Petraia and Castello, whose extensive gardens contain grottos and fountain statues designed by Giambologna and Ammannati, as well as the Villa Gamberaia in Settignano with its "secret garden" and famed water parterres. Lunch will be at Da Delfina in the little village of Artimino. Here we will dine outside on a shady terrace overlooking the "Villa of the Hundred Chimneys", built by the Medici in the 16th century as a hunting lodge. Wild herbs and seasonal flowers play an important role in Delfina's cooking and the local wines are from one of the great winemaking areas of Tuscany. After lunch we will visit the vaulted wine cellars built under the town walls and then the Villa Poggio a Caiano where generations of Medici brides stopped to prepare themselves for their ceremonial entries into Florence.
ALERT MESSAGE
