Villa

Finding its origins from the Roman times, a villa conjures up the idea of a marvelous holiday house overlooking the sea. Originally the villa was a country house of upper class stature, yet after the downfall of the Roman Empire, the villa became a fortified farming compound.

The villa then went on to evolve back to the upper class country home, during the middle ages; also seen as somewhat of a decadent luxury, reserved for the rich and affluent. Nowadays the villa is used to describe a detached suburban house, and is also informally used to describe the country cottages and small dwellings people might own as a vacation house.