Villa Medicea di Cerreto Guidi

The Villa Medicea di Cerreto Guidi was built in the 1560s on the orders of Cosimo I de' Medici, who wanted a comfortable base for hunting expeditions in the Montalbano hills. The building is immediately recognisable from the street: two long parallel ramps of stone steps, called "the fishbones" for their herringbone-like structure, lead up from the piazza to the entrance. These access ramps, designed by Buontalenti, allowed Cosimo and his guests to ride horses directly to the piano nobile — a practical touch that became one of the most distinctive architectural features of any Medici property.

The villa is one of the twelve properties included in the UNESCO World Heritage listing of the Medici Villas and Gardens (inscribed 2013). Inside, the museum is dedicated to Isabella de' Medici and the history of the Medici family in this part of Tuscany, with period furnishings, portraits, and documents that piece together life at a sixteenth-century Medici hunting estate.

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A story
On 16 July 1576, Isabella de' Medici — the most powerful woman in Florence, renowned patron of the arts and daughter of Cosimo I — died here under circumstances that remain disputed. Her husband Paolo Giordano Orsini claimed she suffered a sudden illness; most historians believe she was strangled on his orders, with the knowledge of her brother Francesco I, who found her independence an embarrassment. The official account was accepted without question. Each July the town holds a two-day festival, La Notte d'Isabella, to reclaim her story.