3 8 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY 



CHAPTER XXV. 



VILLA DEI COLLAZZI, TAVARNUZZI, AND VILLA GAMBERAIA, 



FLORENCE. 



SOME three miles south of Florence, beyond the winding River Greve, which here skirts 

 round three sides of the Certosa, high embanked on a spur of the hills and close set 

 about with tall cypresses, a rough hill road between walls leads still upwards to one of 

 the most interesting of the Florentine villas. It was built by Messer Agostino Dini 

 on the site of the old Castle Buondelmonti, of which no trace remains. Whether or not 

 Michelangelo here set his hand to a bold conception of villa architecture, the architect visitor 

 is likely to endorse the verdict of the late Baron Geymuller, that of all the houses shown to 

 him as the work of Michelangelo this was the one which seemed most probable. It is 

 the completeness of the idea and the largeness and perfection of the scale which produce 

 the effect. The severity of the true Florentine style here maintained does not argue in favour 



316. VILLA DEI COLLAZZI: THE CHAPEL. 



