" This is a very special place and of course we've arrived by water as some of the."

" That's the way to come."

" Original owner's guest might have arrived. What room are we in here?"

" Here, we're in the east loggia overlooking Biscayne Bay."

" Uh huh. Tell me about this floor."

" It's a beautiful floor. It gives you a 3-dimensional feeling. It's pattern, after 17th century Baroque floor."

" Exquisite."

" But it's a modern floor."

" Well, modern to 1916."

" That's right."

" And then, let's talk about the architectural plan of the house."

" The house is patterned after a late renaissance Italian villa. "

" A country house?"

" A country house. Build around a great central courtyard with all the rooms opening to the courtyard. "

" How many rooms are there?"

" Well let's see, we saved 70 rooms, but that doesn't include all the service rooms to."

" Okay. So, the courtyard itself would have been a reception area. If you were coming by land, where would you have entered?"

" You would have entered from the main door on the west side of the building, behind this screen wall, behind the fountain."

" So, this fountain is just a screen. Now, is this also 1916 or is it older?"

" Oh no, the fountain itself is very early 17th century."

" Italian?"

" Italian. Notice the dolphins, perfect for a house by the bay."

" Right. And the wear on the edge of the fountain ledge here is unbelievable. I even see how people"

" Years and years and years."

" Yeah, years of peoples arm is coming up there. So, the house really is a mixture of ancient and antique building elements with newer elements."

" Yes."

" Now, I know that most of the rooms of Vizcaya are not available to our camera and to the lighting required, but obviously they're all open to the public or anyone who comes to visit here in Miami?"

" Yes."

" Could you let us have a peek may be at one little area?"

" Yeah sure. Let's go to the tea room."

" Very good."

" The ceiling of the tea room is neoclassical in style."

" It's beautiful, but these gates are unbelievable."

" Aren't they handsome? They came from the Apostoli family Palace in Venice. They are very late 17th century."

" 17th century?"

" Yes."

" So, the whole feeling here is of a neoclassical room."

" That's right and the painted canvas wall panels reflect that [unk]"

" These are scenes of Venice or are they whimsical kind of?"

" They're imaginary scenes."

" They're imaginary, imaginary. Unbelievable, so this is a room that just would have been setup for tea in the afternoon."

" That's right."

" Marvelous. What's over here?"

" Can give us the, is the butler's pantry. "

" Uh huh. So, they must have done a lot of entertaining here?"

" Yes indeed. In fact, Mr. Deering had almost 24 sets of china."

" Amazing, and just a few of them are in here. Now, this the butler's pantry, is there a kitchen on the other side?"

" The kitchen is on the second floor."

" So was a dining area."

" That's right."

" And you could have dined up stairs or down here in the dining room."

" And the courtyard. "

" Or one of the lounges."

" Or the tea room."

" Yeah."

" And one of the things I remember from coming here is this china cupboard, which has all the china from his yacht."

" Yes, the yacht and the painting. You can see the name right on the china."

" On the china."

" And Mr. Deering's yacht Virgie and the New York Yacht Club flag."

" Indeed."

" And then it's written with silver, so it won't chip."

" So it won't chip. What a lifestyle huh? Could we take a quick look at his gardens?"

" Oh let's do."

" Now, how many acres of gardens are there at Vizcaya?"

" Well, now we have about 10 acres of formal gardens, but originally the state comprised 180 acres."

" Amazing."

" Doris, what's the nature of an Italian garden?"

" It's old stone, greenery and water."

" Uh huh."

" They really don't feature flowers."

" And the stone that is used here at Vizcaya is native coral rock?"

" That's right."

" Yeah."

" And most of it was carved right here on the side."

" It's excellent. Well, where to next?"

" Well, let's go up the water stairway and see the casino."

" Well, I can see why they call it a water staircase."

" Yes, it's beautiful isn't it?"

" Patterned after one of the Villa Cortine in Rome."

" And what do we call this structure?"

" This is the casino or little garden house. It provided a destination for work in the gardens."