THE VILLA PETRAJA, FLORENCE 



from office, and with his young second wife, 

 Camilla Martelli, went to live at Castello, where 

 he surrounded himself with learned and illustrious 

 friends, and spent his leisure in scientific and 

 agricultural pursuits alien to the tastes of the 

 young bride, who pined for the gayer doings 

 of the town, and the Court life in which her 

 haughty daughter-in-law, the Grand Duchess 

 Franna, denied her any part. 



How often must poor Camilla have passed the 

 ilex-shaded path from Castello to Petraja looking 

 down, from its exquisite seclusion, upon the city 

 from which she felt herself an exile. 



It was at Petraja that Ammirato, when a guest 

 of the Cardinal, wrote portions of his History of 

 Florence ; and later, when Ferdinand became 

 Grand Duke and married Christine of Lorraine, 

 they and their children constantly stayed at the 

 villa ; and it was at Castello, hard by, that 

 eventually Christine died after a two days' illness 

 1636. 



In later years, Petraja was the home of Victor 

 Emmanuel and his morganatic wife, Rosina 

 Contessa Montefiori, and it was the King who 

 built the rustic stair round the trunk of the large 



2 F 225 



