old Gardens of Italy 165 



The villa is about four miles from the Porta 

 Macqueda, and its grounds are open to the public, 

 though the parterre at the back is not always shown. 

 It is the only formal part of the grounds. Per- 

 mission to visit it may, however, be obtained at the 

 palace at Palermo, where the greatest courtesy is 

 sure to be met with. 



The parterre is laid out with an elaborate 

 broderie pattern in box, and dates from the last 

 part of the eighteenth century. 



Of the other two famous villas at Palermo, the 

 garden of the Villa Giulia (now Villa Flora) is the 

 property of the town, and is used as public pleasure 

 grounds. Its former symmetrical plan, laid out in 

 1777, remains, but it is of little interest. The 

 Villa Tasca has a garden of the purely landscape 

 type. 



VILLA CASTELNUOVO, PALERMO. 



A MAGNIFICENT old garden must once have existed 

 here. The property now belongs to an Agricultural 

 College, and the grounds are not open to the public 

 but would probably be shown on request to anyone 

 studying the subject. Castelnuovo is about four 

 miles from Palermo, on the left-hand side (going) 

 of the same main road that leads past La Favorita. 



The garden theatre still remains, and is the 

 largest the writer has seen. The wings are of 

 cypress, and it has a stucco background in imitation 

 of a landscape with a cascade, castle, etc. 



There is also a magnificent cypress viale. 



