ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



seen all this we can go beyond the walls and explore 

 the tract of country known as the Casentino or valley 

 of the Upper Arno. A fiercely contested battle- 

 ground it was in Dante's time, when Arezzo was the 

 great stronghold of the Ghibelline party, who from 

 its walls waged war on the Guelfs of Florence, and 

 this fair Aretine territory was laid waste by repeated 

 invasions of the foe. 



It is hard to recall that warlike age in our own days 

 when the Casentino was a rich and smiling district, 

 fair at all times, but most of all in the early autumn 

 when purple figs and scarlet pomegranates fomi 

 oro hang in clusters from the trees, and acacias and 

 vines are touched with their first tints of gold. The 

 vintage had already begun on the warm September 

 day when we left the gates of Arezzo and drove up 

 Val d'Arno to visit the renowned mountain sanctuary 

 of La Vernia. The vineyards on either side of the 

 road were alive with bright groups of peasants gather- 

 ing the first ripe grapes, and piling up the large wicker 

 baskets into waggons harnessed with white oxen who 

 stood lazily by, shaking their heads now and then to 

 drive away the flies with the crimson tassels which 

 hung over their foreheads. 



For three hours we followed the course of the 

 Arno, which, " not content with its hundred miles 

 race," here begins those interminable windings through 



the midst of this fair Tuscan land which Dante, in 



256 



