VILLA AMARI 



Montaigne, that most naive and cosmopolitan of travellers, writing of 

 the Italian villa and its most delightful surroundings, says : " The 

 vigne " (a word often used for villa) " here assume the form of pleasure- 

 grounds, and are places of singular beauty ; here I first learnt how much 

 art can do in transforming rugged, hilly and uneven spots into delightful 

 gardens, which even borrow an infinity of graces, not known among us, 

 from the very irregularity of the surface." This is no less true of the 

 modest villa than of its pretentious neighbour, which lords it over half a 

 hillside. 



The Villa Amari possesses in perfection all those qualities most 

 desirable in a villa, having a southern aspect and being sheltered from 

 cold northerly winds by the rising ground behind, yet with such elevation 

 above the plain that there is a pleasant breeze stirring even on the 

 warmest day. Its gardens, though not on the grand scale to which we 

 are accustomed in the vicinity of Rome, have that delightful combina- 

 tion of sunny terraces and shady alleys so essential in a climate subject to 

 alternations of heat and cold. 



It must have been just such a garden that Gio. Battista Ferrari had 

 in his mind's eye when he wrote in 1633 in his " de Florum Cultura" : 

 " First let the man whose nature exults in the culture of flowers choose 

 for his flower-garden a plot exposed to a healthy climate, and remote 

 from marshes, lest the gardener himself, among the gaily coloured 

 flowers, should by breathing pestilential air be overcome by the pale 

 hue of death ; not facing a river, lest he should breathe cold and damp, 

 and therefore unhealthy air ; and if possible close to his house, so that 



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