280 THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



church and become Grand Duke, greeted his bride, Christina of Lorraine, at Poggio Cajano in 

 April, 1589. She was only sixteen years of age, and her training was that of the French Court. 

 The great-grandson, Cosimo III, spent much time at this villa. It has remained as a royal 

 residence, and permission to visit is obtained at the Pitti Palace. 



If the site and appearance of the great enclosing walls with their four angle pavilions 

 suggested a Roman camp, the villa in the midst in its sturdy four-squareness may be regarded 

 as the counterpart of the Pretorium, still facing the Alban chain of hills as proudly and 

 unchangedly as in the days of the Medici. A. T. B. 



In contrast to the stately Medici villas near Florence, Poggio Imperiale* and Poggio Cajano, 

 the Royal House of Italy owns two small, almost homely, villas, seldom occupied, but 

 thoroughly livable, and not without their own share of historic interest. 



Castellurn is a receptacle for water and Villant says that Marcrinus, a Roman senator, 

 made an aqueduct on arches and brought water seven miles for Florentia. Some remains 

 existed as late as 1750. 



When Montaigne visited Castello he wrote of its berceaux, or pleached walks, and of its 

 cypress groves ; but these have been sacrificed to the fashion of modern gardening, which has 

 spoilt so many of these old pleasaunces. Vasari writes of the villa that " it was built by Pier 

 Francesco di Medici with much judgment." 



Perhaps the most interesting character whom the villa has ever received was Catherine 

 Sforza, who lived here for the last seven years of her life. Gone, then, was that beauty which 

 is described as glowing like the sun, as rivalling lilies and roses. Her wild and revengeful 

 persecution of her first and second husbands' murderers had faded into the past, and, having 

 married Giovanni de Medici, she retired to Castello, and devoted herself to the training of her 

 little boy, that Giovanni de Medici who was to be so widely known as Giovanni delle Bande 

 Nero, the last of the great Condottieri. 



It was in 1504 that he joined his mother there, and she bought him " a small and handsome 

 horse." The mother of Cosimo I died at Castello, to which Cosimo himself returned after his 

 secret marriage with Camilla Martelli, and it was from here that he sent that vigorous message ; 

 " I am not the first Prince who has taken a vassal to wife, and I shall not be the last ; my wife 

 is of gentle birth, and is to be respected as such. I do not seek for quarrels, but I shall not 

 avoid them if they are forced upon me. When I make up my mind to do a thing, I do it 

 regardless of consequences, trusting in God and my own right hand." 



A charming walk through an ilex wood and meadow leads to where Petraja hangs along the 

 hill. Half way is an exquisite little campanile and chapel, half hidden in a group of cypresses, 

 which the country people proudly call la meraviglia di Castello. 



As we approach it, Petraja stands in striking lines, the tower, which recalls that of the Palazzo 

 Vecchio, rising from a shoulder of ilexes, the long walls sloping down into the valley, while 

 beyond show the towers and dome of the City of the Lily. 



The villa of Petraja is a simple white house with broad eaves, its squareness relieved by the 

 tower. It stands in the usual formal garden, which is well kept and full of flowers. Every 

 day flowers are sent off from here to the Royal palace at the Quirinal. On one side of the villa 

 stands a huge ilex tree with a rustic staircase leading into its branches, where there is a platform 

 on which Victor Emmanuel used to dine when he and his wife " Rosina " were staying at 

 Petraja or Castello. On the other side is a fountain, the masterpiece of Tribolo, which was 

 brought here from Castello by the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo. Vasari says of it : "II 

 Tribolo carved on the marble base a mass of marine monsters, all plump and undercut, with 

 tails so curiously twisted together that nothing better can be done in that style. Having 

 finished it, he took a marble basin, brought to Castello long before. ... In the throat, near 

 to the edge of the said basin, he made a circle of dancing boys holding certain festoons of 

 marine creatures, carved with excellent imagination out of the marble ; also the stem to go 

 above the said basin he executed with much grace, with boys and masks for spouting out water, 



* Poggio Imperiale, now a school for girls, one mile outside Porta Romana, on heights of Arcetri. In 1548 confiscated 

 by the Medici from the Salviati. Maria Maddalcna of Austria, wife of Cosimo II, employed Giulio Parigi as architect. Stable 

 block, etc., added later. A. T. B. 



