ITALIAN VILLAS 
the villa-farmhouse order, with chapel, offices and out- 
houses connected with the main house, it was trans- 
formed in the sixteenth century, probably by Ammanati, 
into one of the stateliest country houses near Florence. 
A splendid rusticated loggia, approached by a double 
flight of steps, forms an angle of the main house, and 
either then or later the spacious open court, around 
three sides of which the villa is built, was roofed over 
and turned into a great central saloon like those of the 
Venetian and Milanese villas. This two-storied saloon 
is the finest and most appropriate feature of the interior 
planning of Italian villas, but it seems never to have 
been as popular in Tuscany as it was farther north or 
south. The Tuscan villas, for the most part, are smaller 
and less pretentious in style than those erected in other 
parts of Italy, and only in exceptional instances did the 
architect free himself from the traditional plan of the old 
farmhouse-villa around its open court. A fine example 
of this arcaded court may be seen at Petraia, the Medi- 
cean villa near Gastello. At Fonte all’ Erta the former 
court faced toward what was once an old flower-garden, 
raised a few feet above the grass terrace which runs 
the length of the facade. Behind this garden, and 
adjoining the back of the villa, is the old evergreen 
grove ; but the formal surroundings of the house have 
disappeared. 
The most splendid and stately villa in the neighbour- 
hood of Florence stands among the hills a few miles 
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