GARDENS OF FLORENTINE HUMANISTS 
whom Galeazzo calls the loveliest maiden in Florence, 
joined in country dances with the peasant girls of 
Oareggi. Altogether it was a memorable afternoon, 
and one that the young Sforza prince could not easily 
forget. 
Cafaggiuolo was another villa which Michelozzo 
built for Cosimo on a spur of the Apennines in Val 
Mugello, eighteen miles from the town. Vasari 
describes this as a castle with moat and drawbridge, 
built for defence, but surrounded with ilex-woods, 
gardens, fountains, aviaries, and all that makes a villa 
fair and pleasant. To-day Cafaggiuolo still retains its 
massive tower and machicolated walls, although the 
moat and bridges are gone and the grass grows up 
to the doors. But according to Messer Giorgio, 
Michelozzo’s masterpiece was the villa which he built 
for Cosimo’s younger son, Giovanni, on the steep hill 
of Fiesole. Here he had to contend with the natural 
difficulties of the site, but even these the great architect 
turned to advantage, raising huge buttresses against the 
hillside, and having stables, cellars, and storehouses cut 
out of the rock, on which he erected “ fair halls and 
saloons for music and books.” “ And so great was 
his skill,” adds Vasari, “ that in spite of the exposed 
situation of the house no crack has ever been seen in 
the walls.” 
Cosimo’s grandsons, Lorenzo and Giuliano, spent 
