i6o 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

 THE VILLA ALDOBRANDINI. 



THE Villa Aldobrandini is an immense structure, of which the spectator can hardly 

 get the full effect close at hand. It rises up above the modern piazza at Frascati, 

 from which it is separated by the curious slotted wall and railings illustrated (Figs. 166 

 and 167). The lay-out in front is grand in its simple lines, which suit the rapidly rising 

 ascent. This entrance is not actually used, and a long drive up the hillside roads brings the 

 visitor round to an approach which enters into a roadway at the back of the house, where it is 

 extended by the great hemicycle situated at the base of the cascade. Like all houses built 

 on a plateau formed out of a hillside, the difficulty has been to secure an adequate area 

 of ground at the rear. There is space here, but the scale of the hemicycle and of its 

 features is so large that it fails to accord with that of the house. Such is the height of this 

 retaining wall that the cascade itself is cut off from any ordinary point of view. The winding 

 stairs in the wall lead up to the cascade, which, while on the same lines as that of the Torlonia. 

 is distinctly inferior to it in design. It is flanked by two curious mosaic covered columns with 

 spiral bands, down which the water was arranged to swirl. Above the cascade the main stream 

 runs swiftly in an open channel through a clearing in the plantation. There is a niche with 

 mosaics and two figures like Dresden peasants, between which the water pours down (Fig. 175). 

 Behind this feature steps ascend to another level, also with an open channel for the stream, ending 

 in a wall of rough ruins whence the water flows down over tufa rockwork. This level is that of 



1 66. ENCLOSING WALL OF THE VILLA ALDOBRANDINI TOWARDS THE PIAZZA AT FRASCATI. 



