Villa Petraia, Sunday's first visit.

Now that I have returned from Florence laden with photographs and ideas, and a bit less at the mercy of  Italian wifi (or was it just hotel wifi?) I can get back to sharing some of the gorgeous things I saw. 
On Sunday we visited another two villas just outside Florence in Castello. The first was La Petraia, a lovely formal garden laid out around a stunning villa owned by the Medici (yes another one!)  The garden consisted of clipped Box hedges and Lemon trees in spectacular pots, but also had more relaxed planting with Alliums, Peonies, and cascading English Roses. 

The English Rose Garden - they smelt heavenly!

Aliums and Peonies

And everywhere little green lizards skittered about, lazing in the sun and climbing through the box hedging.

And as if the fantastic garden wasn't beautiful enough, when we went into the villa there was a covered courtyard which had the odd painting in it and a bit of a chandelier. That's some greenhouse!