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THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



populace and the colony of foreigners. The walls were afterwards rebuilt by Pius IV, in the 

 sixteenth century, and the earlier fortifications were almost entirely obliterated. 



Sixtus IV, the Pope to whom we owe the Sistine Chapel, first laid out the grounds 

 extending up the hill as the gardens of the Vatican. The taste for gardens was just reviving, 

 and the building of mediaeval castles was giving way to that of fascinating and luxurious villas ; 

 and as Pope Sixtus created the garden, so it remains in great measure to-day. It has been 

 enlarged from time to time, and in 1845 the grounds of the Hospital di San Spirito, a religious 

 institution dating from the eighth century, were absorbed. A piece of the faade of the Hospital, 

 with its double cross, still stands against the walls. Pius IX laid out the carriage drive and built 

 some supplementary walls. 



The gardens are entered from the Museum of Sculpture at the back of St. Peters', and for 

 more than a cursory glimpse of them a special permit is required. This is obtained from one 

 of the Cardinals, and requires to be vised by the major-domo, who is to be found near the 



33. OVAL COURT OF VILLA PIA FROM THE SOUTH-WEST. 



entrance to the Scala Regia. Armed with this, a delicious early morning wander can be 

 enjoyed. The gardens are cleared at twelve, when the Pope generally walks or drives 

 there. 



They are of horseshoe shape. On entering, a noble terrace stretches away and surrounds 

 two sides of a large formal garden. This terrace, which has a beautiful view of the great dome, 

 is the place where Leo XIII so often sat, and where the well known picture of him, surrounded 

 by his Cardinals, was painted. It is sheltered by a high close-clipped wall of greenery in 

 which statues are set at intervals; beyond are descending terraces with walks dark and shady 

 with ilexes. Openings cut here and there reveal fountains flinging high their silver showers. 



At the end of the first stretch of terrace the carriage road mounts up the hill and encircles 

 the grounds ; but more tempting than the wide, well kept drive is an irregular opening in the 

 green wall, through which you pass into a bosky wood. Wild and shady, this is exquisite in the 

 spring-time when the elms and birches are fresh with tender green, the ground starred with 



