Villa Gamberaia

Villa Gamberaia, built in the Tuscan style by the Florentine gentleman-merchant Zanobi Lapi in the early 1600s, is located on the hillside of Settignano, overlooking the city of Florence, Italy and the surrounding Arno Valley.

The villa is celebrated for the unique design of its gardens, originally laid out by Zanobi Lapi and his nephews in the first half of the seventeenth century and preserved until now with few major changes. According to Edith Wharton, the Gamberaia was "probably the most perfect example of the art of producing a great effect on a small scale". The design has inspired landscape and garden architects throughout the world, including Charles Platt, A. E. Hanson, and Ellen Shipman in the United States and Cecil Pinsent and Pietro Porcinai in Italy and the UK. In 2010 the Gamberaia was chosen as the model for the "RCSF Tuscan garden", recreated at Snug Harbor, Staten Island, New York.