VILLA DI CANIPAROLA 



The spurs or the Apennines in the neighbourhood of Florence are strewn 

 with villas far and wide. So far as their gardens are concerned, the 

 majority of these have unhappily lost what interest they once possessed ; 

 in other words they have lost their Italian character, without gaining 

 any equivalent in the shape of flowers to compensate for the loss. The 

 landscape gardener has done incalculable mischief, and the average 

 Florentine garden to-day consists of nearly equal proportions of rough 

 weedy grass (it cannot be called turf) and loose small shingle, with some 

 rather uninteresting shrubs and " fir-trees," palms and other " exotics," 

 and possesses none of the charm which we associate with an English 

 garden. 



Fortunately, however, many, exceptions to this rule exist ; notable 

 among which may be mentioned the Villa Gamberaja, unhappily no 

 longer accessible. It occupies a hill-side near Sett-ignano, with a 

 delightful view of Florence and the Val d'Arno. The casino, of the 

 old Tuscan type, a square, simple building with deep overhanging eaves 

 and an ideal colonnaded loggia, close beneath the roof on the southern 

 side, is built round an arcaded court. It stands towards one end of a 

 broad terrace, and is detached from the hill-side by a wide grass walk, 

 which is extended in both directions and terminates at one end in a semi- 

 circular arrangement of fountain and grotto, surrounded by a fine group 

 of cypresses, and at the other in a balustrade, with a statue and obelisks, 

 that overhangs the podere and the valley looking towards Rovezzano. 



The parterre, which shares with the casino the principal terrace, has 

 been laid out of late years with four " quarters " surrounding a circular 



III 



