VILLA SALVIATI AND VILLA (i.lk'/.OM. 343 



gardens of Italy. One of its beauties is a stately framework of clipped cypress, a double wall, 

 with shady path between, rising in volutes and arches, and surrounding the central garden 

 (Fig. 348). The stairway culminates in a wonderful water-work centre-piece, a mass of jets 

 and spouts and spraying showers playing in all directions. 



Above this great central jeu d' artifice we mount again on either side of the descending 

 stream which feeds the fountain. It is formed into a series of deep pools, and half way up on 

 either hand recline more than life-size female figures in stucco, one personifying Lucca and 

 the other Florence. Higher still, a giant " Fame " towers aloft in a bower of green, and from 

 the trumpet at her lips once blew a sparkling shower into the maidenhair-fringed basin at her 

 feet (Fig. 355). 



Behind the great figure the wood begins. Plane trees and acacias make a green shade, and 

 in the cool recesses above we come to the most attractive little bath-house imaginable. It contains 

 two bathrooms with tempting marble baths, and dressing-rooms, and two little salons " for repose." 

 The whole is decorated in white, blue and gold, with gilt scrolls and frescoes of little amorini 

 and garlands. The pretty sofas and tabourets are still covered with pale, faded silks. It gives 

 a curious impression of the daintiness and luxury of Italian society in the days of the Grand 

 Dukes of Tuscany, when the Marchese Garzoni, for whom the villa was built, held his mimic 

 summer court in the mountains. The name of the designer and architect of the villa and its 

 garden is in doubt. The work belongs to the middle of the seventeenth century, for 

 Francesco Sbarra, a poet of Lucca, wrote an ode in 1652 entitled " The Pomps of Collodi," in 

 which he lauds the enchanting parterres and the lordly palace, constructed for the Marchese 

 Romano Garzoni, and says : 



Here where we lately saw ruins and caves, 

 And horrid chaos, we admire to-day 

 Delights and vastness and wonders. 



He describes the rustic bridge, the labyrinth, the mimic theatre (Fig. 347), and gives a long 

 account of the fountains and the statues, " whose beauties are hidden beneath a silver veil of 

 spray." He speaks, too, of the castle, or palace, with its ample cortile, raised by him " who is 

 the sovereign lord of all this region." 



Collodi was the property of the See of Lucca in the Middle Ages. Its long siege by the 

 Florentines in the winter of 1430 is famous, and is minutely described by Rinaldo degli Albizzi, 

 who records how well the valorous little city continued to hold its own. In 1437 it was 

 conquered by the Florentines, but by a treaty of 1442 was restored to Lucca. The little 

 township has had its tale of citizens distinguished in Italy writers, doctors and philosophers. 

 The villa has always belonged to the Garzoni, and they are now represented by two daughters, 

 the last of the line. E. M. P. 



