Villa Medici di Careggi Garden

This quattrocento fortified villa is but one remove from a castle. The garden nestles behind a high wall and is famed as the place where Cosimo de' Medici (1389-1464) assembled his Platonic academy. Michelozzi was employed to transform the medieval manor house into a comfortable residence with elegant logias. The garden was laid out in imitation of a Roman villa with space for outdoor living, of the type Pliny wrote about in his letters. A 1636 drawing shows the house and garden much as they are today, though without the circular pool. The original planting was botanical. Cosimo also employed Michelozzi to work on Medici Villa at Fiesole. Careggi looks inward, with the Middle Ages. Fiesole looks outward, with the renaissance. One should visit them in the correct order. Cosimo, the most celebrated of all the Medicis, died here in 1464.