Also (incorrectly) villegiatura. [It., f. villeggiare to live at a villa or in the country, f. villa VILLA.] Residence at a country villa or in the country; a holiday spent in this way.
1742. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 1 Nov. I don’t wonder that she hates the country; I dare to say her child does not owe its existence to the Villeggiatura.
1765. Smollett, Trav., xxix. (1766), II. 80. The mountain of Viterbo is covered with beautiful plantations and villas belonging to the Roman nobility, who come hither to make the villegiatura in summer.
1822. Shelley, Prose Wks. (1880), IV. 284. Lord Byron is in villeggiatura, near Leghorn.
1845. Prescott, in Life Longfellow (1891), II. 22. We keep our villeggiatura at Pepperell, not fitting at all to Nahant this summer.
1885. Times (wkly. ed.), 18 Sept., 15/3. [They] occasionally left the cares and dignity of the Vice-regal Lodge to come down for a quiet villegiatura here.
So ǁ Villegiature. Obs.–1 [F. villegiature.]
1740. Corr. betw. C’tess Hartford & C’tess Pomfret (1805), II. 172. I am sorry the nobility of Florence did not defer their villegiature till Christmas.
