Rome, Italy - Villa di Medici

A Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome. The Villa Medici, owned by Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and now property of the French State, has housed the French Academy in Rome since 1803. Ferdinando purchased the villa from Cardinal Giovanni Ricci, and enlarged it to hold his collection of Classical sculpture. The garden front, above a deep loggia, was encrusted with antique fragments framed in rich stuccowork. Ferdinando consulted Ammanati when restoring and enlarging the villa.