Layers

Gorgeousness. For Elle Interiör. Photographed by Petra Bindel...

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Villa Medicea La Petraia

It is amazing that, while researching on the internet, one finds conflicting facts about certain things. For example with regard to the Villa Medicea La Petraia, one site claims that Cosimo Daddi (a late Renaissance painter active mainly around Volterra and Florence) was responsible for the fresco decoration of the Villa Petraia for the Medici family. And that Baldassare Franceschini (one of his pupils) also contributed to the frescoes. Another site claims that after Ferdinando I de’ Medici restructured the castle belonging to the Brunelleschi family in the 16th Century, Volterrano completed the frescoes dedicated to the Medici family on the walls of the inner courtyard. Later, the Savoy family turned the castle into a summer residence, adding pieces from other royal residences and today visitors can see the Savoy room which is equipped with parlour games. Either way whoever was responsible (perhaps all), the enclosed courtyard must be one of the most glorious in all of Europe...

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Trompe L'oeil

The dazzlingly gorgeous dining room at Villa Malaspina. Don't you love the painting of the dog in the fireplace? This and more splendour to be found in the book, Villas of Tuscany, by Carlo Cresti and photographed by Massimo Listri (who I have written about here)...

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Bunny's Greenhouse...

(Mellon, that is). To me, this is the ultimate in luxury - a room devoted to all things botanical, the real specimens just narrowly eclipsed by the trompe l’oeil murals by Fernand Renard...

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Every Square Inch...

Spellbound. Just one of many adjectives for Castellini House in Milan. What is even more beguiling is the mystery that prevails - no matter how much I strain my Google tool, I cannot find any further information about it. I happened upon the website of photographer, Richard Powers, quite by accident. The arresting photographs of the interior - the teal and sea-green canvas, the botanical trompe l'oeil murals, the circus tent-esque effect of the ceilings and the intricate mosaic tiles... let's just say, I would park my vespa against that salvaged pillar any day of the week.

All images from here