ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



Bibbiena doctor, who had ridden up that morning to 

 see a sick monk, and had brought his little girl with 

 him on her first visit to La Vernia. It was touching 

 to see the delight and amusement with which the 

 monks gathered round the child, asking her name, 

 patting her curly head, and feeding and petting her 

 in the fondest manner. Naturally enough, they 

 seemed to hail gladly any communication with the 

 outer world, and a venerable-looking old brother who 

 had weathered the snows and frosts of more than 

 eighty winters in this desolate abode, amused us by 

 the eagerness with which he asked our friend the 

 doctor, " What news in Bibbiena ? " Although so 

 remote a place to us, the little mountain town was 

 evidently to him the centre of life and business. 



Later in the day we ascended the highest point 

 of the mountain, a rock called La Penna. Passing 

 under an arched gateway behind the church, and 

 leaving the long low building which contains the 

 friars' cells on our left, we crossed a woodyard, where 

 two brothers were sawing planks of timber, and came 

 out into the bosco of fine beech-trees and tall pines, 

 where the birds of old sang to Francis, while Orlando's 

 men-at-arms cut down logs to build his first rude 

 huts. The view from the chapel on the summit is 

 magnificent. On the one side we looked down upon 

 Tuscany, on the other on Umbria and the March of 

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