THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



One of the ways is a pleached alley. The main avenue leads to an oblong clearing about 

 ninety yards by forty-five yards. From the centre of the long side of this open space 

 and on the axis of the avenue the great cascade descends the hillside. The slope is upheld by 

 a long wall fifteen feet high, decorated with twenty-one arched niches, in front of which is a 

 narrow canal that expands into a large central basin (Fig. 163). You ascend through certain 

 niches, which are nine and fourteen in the series, giving access to vaulted stairways, and find 

 yourself at the level at which the cascade starts. It has a rise of seventy-four steps. At the head 

 of the cascade is a balcony commanding a fine view down the axis line of the approach. The 

 great cluster of trees backing the great terrace is distinct in the foreground. Immediately behind 

 is a pool basin about thirty-six yards across, set in a circular clearing and surrounded by trees 

 with stone seats at intervals. 



Radiating paths are driven through the wood, and the axis line finishes by a path 

 leading to the boundary wall of the property. The villa itself is in a quiet Tuscan 



156. THE CENTRAL STAIRWAY UP TO THE GREAT TERRACE. 



style. As seen from the avenue, it is an interesting composition ; the advanced wing on the 

 left acts as repeat of the tower-like mass on the right and gives an effect of balance without 

 symmetry. It is built of rough local stone plastered, with tufa piers and dressings, delightful 

 in colour and roughness. The villa has three storeys and a raised feature, forming a symmetrical 

 design on its western face. A forecourt about sixty yards square, laid out on this western 

 front, is entered from the main avenue. There is a semicircular bastion extension forty 

 yards across, which is balustraded round and commands a fine view over the hill slopes lying 

 below, from which it is built up. A raised basin, with a curvilinear body of built brickwork 

 with a stone curb, is flanked by two fine trees, and forms the centralising feature of this 

 forecourt. There are two wall fountains, with shells in their niche heads, set at an angle to 

 the entrance doorway of the villa. A. T. B. 



The Colonna claim descent from the Conti, one of the oldest families in Italy. The last of 

 the race, Fulvia Conti, married a Sforza in 1650, and by an alliance with the Sforza-Cesarini 



