POGGIO CAJAXO, CASTELLO AXD PETRAJA, FLORENCE, 



283 



the Arno, Petraja being 

 higher up than Castello, 

 having no less than four 

 hundred and fifteen feet 

 of elevation as against 

 the one hundred and fifty 

 feet at Poggio Cajano. 

 It is as well, therefore, 

 to visit Castello first, and, 

 ascending the grounds at 

 the back of that house, 

 to make your way up- 

 wards to Petraja. Of the 

 two, Castello is rather 

 the palace and Petraja 

 the villa, each appealing 

 accordingly to a different 

 class of visitor. 



The approach to 

 Castello is very attractive. 

 Turning in from the 

 dusty high road, there 

 is an avenue leading to a 

 round point, Irom which 

 a pleached alley at right 

 angles leads into an 

 oblong forecourt. The 

 house faces a semicircle, 

 sixty yards across, with 

 balustrading and statues 

 that connect forecourt 

 and avenue. On the 

 right is the long, low 

 lemonaia, and on the left 

 a delightful formal gar- 

 den. This is enclosed 

 by a wall and laid out 

 in three repeats of a 

 parterre pattern of flower- 

 b e d s enclosed i n a 

 clipped edging of dwarf 

 box. The end of the 

 house, which has a re- 

 cessed central loggia in 

 two storeys, looks out 

 upon this garden. The 

 house is planned round a 

 central cortile. It is not 

 very interesting inside, 

 but some Empire furni- 

 ture and a great wine jar 

 of green glazed earthen- 

 ware dated 1531 may be 

 noted. Behind the house 



294. VILLA PETRAJA : DISTANT VIEW, 



195. THE WALL DECORATIONS OF THE SALON OF THE 



VILLA PETRAJA. 



