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Viareggio’s carnival may lack the costumed balls of Venice, but their parade of elaborate floats is almost as famous.

Modern Italian houseware designs, with friendly staff.

This was a residence in the 19th century of Tuscany’s Lorraine Grand Dukes. The rooms, a mix of old and modern decor, overlook the villa’s verdant park, which contains a pool and tennis court.

This villa was rebuilt for Ferdinando I de’ Medici by Buontalenti (1595). Volterrano decorated the courtyard with the Glory of the Medici frescoes (1636–48). The English-style park is 17th-century.

The mansion is gone, but Buontalenti’s fountain-filled and statue-studded Pratolino park remains a favourite excursion from Florence.

Buontalenti laid out the vast Pratolino park for Francesco I de’ Medici (1568–81). The waterworks of luminous jet sprays and singing fountains have long fallen into disrepair, and the villa itself was demolished in 1824, but what remains is still spectacular, especially the figure of Appennino rising out of a lily pond.

A 16th-century Buontalenti villa for Ferdinando I. The multitude of chimneys and lack of gardens hint that this was a hunting lodge for winter sport. The basement houses a small museum of archaeology.

Tiny castle commissioned from Michelozzo (1451) by Cosimo il Vecchio de’ Medici. Open only for private functions, although you can visit the gardens by appointment.

Cosimo I had Tribolo lay out the marvellous gardens in 1541, a combination of clipped hedges, ponds, ilex woods and statuary. Only the gardens are open.

Though the villa (1633–52) is currently closed, the 17thand 18th-century park, which is set into a steep hillside with statues and fountains aplenty, is still open to the public.