DOI chapter:
I. Florentine villas
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61216#0085
FLORENTINE VILLAS
ten miles from Florence. It is not easy to reach, for
so long is it since any one has lived in the melancholy
willino of Villa Campi that even in the streets of Lastra,
the little walled town by the Arno, a guide is hard to
find. But at last one is told to follow a steep country
road among vines and olives, past two or three charm-
ing houses buried in ilex-groves, till the way ends in a
lane which leads up to a gateway surmounted by statues.
Ascending thence by a long avenue of cypresses, one
reaches the level hilltop on which the house should have
stood. Two pavilions connected by a high wall face
the broad open terrace, whence there is a far-spreading
view over the Arno valley: doubtless the main building
was to have been placed between them. But now the
place lies enveloped in a mysterious silence. The foot
falls noiselessly on the grass carpeting of the alleys, the
water is hushed in pools and fountains, and broken
statues peer out startlingly from their niches of unclipped
foliage. From the open space in front of the pavilions,
long avenues radiate, descending and encircling the
hillside, walled with cypress and ilex, and leading to
rond-points set with groups of statuary, and to balus-
traded terraces overhanging the valley. The plan is
vast and complicated, and appears to have embraced the
whole hillside, which, contrary to the usual frugal Tuscan
plan, was to have been converted into a formal park with
vistas, quincunxes and fountains.
Entering a gate in the wall between the pavilions,
55
ten miles from Florence. It is not easy to reach, for
so long is it since any one has lived in the melancholy
willino of Villa Campi that even in the streets of Lastra,
the little walled town by the Arno, a guide is hard to
find. But at last one is told to follow a steep country
road among vines and olives, past two or three charm-
ing houses buried in ilex-groves, till the way ends in a
lane which leads up to a gateway surmounted by statues.
Ascending thence by a long avenue of cypresses, one
reaches the level hilltop on which the house should have
stood. Two pavilions connected by a high wall face
the broad open terrace, whence there is a far-spreading
view over the Arno valley: doubtless the main building
was to have been placed between them. But now the
place lies enveloped in a mysterious silence. The foot
falls noiselessly on the grass carpeting of the alleys, the
water is hushed in pools and fountains, and broken
statues peer out startlingly from their niches of unclipped
foliage. From the open space in front of the pavilions,
long avenues radiate, descending and encircling the
hillside, walled with cypress and ilex, and leading to
rond-points set with groups of statuary, and to balus-
traded terraces overhanging the valley. The plan is
vast and complicated, and appears to have embraced the
whole hillside, which, contrary to the usual frugal Tuscan
plan, was to have been converted into a formal park with
vistas, quincunxes and fountains.
Entering a gate in the wall between the pavilions,
55