Of all the Medici villas, Poggio a Caiano is the one that changed architecture. Lorenzo the Magnificent commissioned it from Giuliano da Sangallo in the 1480s, and the result was something new: a country house raised on an arcaded platform, with a portico topped by a classical pediment, the first time a temple front had been put on a private villa since antiquity. Palladio would develop the idea in the Veneto decades later. Inside, the great hall is decorated with frescoes by Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo and others, and Pontormo's lunette of Vertumnus and Pomona, with its lazy figures lounging on a wall, is one of the most charming paintings of the Renaissance. The villa is part of the UNESCO listing of the Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany.
The villa has its own dark tale. In 1587, Grand Duke Francesco I and his wife Bianca Cappello died here within a day of each other, officially of fever, though rumours of poisoning by his brother Ferdinando have never gone away. Today, the villa also houses a museum of still-life paintings from the Medici collections, and its gardens and park are open to visitors.
The town lies between Florence and Prato, at the foot of the Montalbano hills. The countryside around it produces Carmignano, one of the oldest protected wine areas in the world, its boundaries defined by decree in the early eighteenth century, and a short ride up the hill, the Medici villa of Artimino, known for its many chimneys, looks out over the vineyards. The riding is good once you escape the busy roads of the plain: the lanes climbing through Carmignano and Artimino toward the ridge are narrow and twisty, with views over the Arno valley and Florence, and the surface varies from smooth tarmac to patched and gravelly.
Poggio a Caiano, with nearly eight thousand inhabitants, has fuel, shops and restaurants, and Prato, a few kilometres north, is a large textile city with everything. Prato is known for its cantucci, crunchy almond biscuits dipped in Vin Santo, and for mortadella di Prato. Try a plate of pappa al pomodoro, a thick tomato and bread soup, or a bistecca alla fiorentina, if you are hungry enough.