“A house is made with walls and beams;
a home is built with love and dreams.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Built on the shores of Biscayne Bay as an eighteenth-century Italian villa, Vizcaya served as the winter residence of International Harvester executive, James Deering. A sailor at heart, Deering wanted the Florida estate to be approached from the sea—the east façade on the bay is fronted with a monumental breakwater shaped as a boat and decorated with mythical Caribbean creatures.
Constructed between 1914-1922, Vizcaya is known for its mansion with 34 decorated rooms and over 2,500 art objects and furnishings, a 2,000-specimen orchid collection, ten acres of Italian Renaissance formal gardens and 25 acres of endangered primary growth forests. 
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Vizcaya, Biscayne Bay, Florida — Photos by Mary O’Connor
© 2019
Life Is Full of Sweet Spots 
Mary, thank you for sharing a wonderful dream house. Sometimes it is hard to imagine living in such a home.
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You’re so right! I sometimes wonder what it was like living back in those days, let alone in a place like this one!
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