There once was a man named Andrea Palladio, who designed these great big, lumbering, huge houses around Venice for upper crust Italians who wanted to show off their money. The Palladian style swept through Europe, and particularly captivating the English and the French who used it extensively in their country houses. For hundreds of years, Chinoiserie, an aesthetic style more Chinese-esque than actually Chinese, was very popular among amongst these same aristocrats who found fascination with the exotic, the novel, and the eclectic.
Palladian on the outside, and Chinois on the inside, this Snapper Creek house on a huge lot dabbles in both of those grand traditions, and does it fairly well. For $7.5 million, the 9,460 square foot lakefront house, with five bedrooms, and 2.5 baths comes on 1.6 acres, with a wine cellar, pool, wide lawn, and wooded area. A wide cascading grass terrace acts a boat landing in case you need a place to stick your gondola.
· 10705 Snapper Creek Road, Coral Gables, FL [Curbed Marketplace]