274 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



POGGIO GAJANO, GASTELLO AND PETRAJA AND VILLA 



MEDICEA GAREGGI, FLORENCE. 



BY white and dusty roads bordered with fields set out in oblongs, by lines of 

 pollarded trees and irrigation ditches, insets alternately cultivated, gay and bright 

 with mustard flower and green grass or dull with brown earth where no crop 

 has yet appeared such is the scene through which the hurrying steam tram takes 

 the visitor out to the pleasant retreat of Poggio Cajano. Lying ten miles out to the 



west of the city, the 

 walled enclosure of 

 the villa lies, like a 

 Roman camp, at the head 

 of the rising street of 

 the little village, just 

 where the ground falls 

 again with a descent 

 to the open country. 

 The river was crossed 

 just before the village 

 was reached, and 

 facing the villa at no 

 great distance is the 

 Alban mountain chain, 

 so that the spot was 

 chosen with a keen eye 

 for all the advantages of 

 situation. I/ o r e n z o 

 Medici, il Magnifico, 

 bought the castle and 

 estate from the Cancel- 

 lieri family of Pistoia, 

 and employed Giuliano 

 da San Gallo to build 

 the new villa on the 

 foundations of the old 

 castle. Charles V, on 

 the occasion of his visit 

 in May, 1536, remarked 

 on the fortress character 

 of Poggio Cajano. 

 The front curtain wall 

 of the villa is, as it were, 

 defended by two raised 



286. ENTRANCE TO THE GROTTO UNDER THE TERRACE PLATEAU OF en d pavilions, one of 



THE VILLA POGGIO CAJANO. which is a chapel and the 



