the cold water is supplied by as many frogs which are placed above the 

 heads of these monsters. Around the basin, into which there is a 

 commodious descent by circular steps, there is a space in which two 

 persons can walk together conveniently. The wall is divided into eight 

 compartments, in four of which are large niches, each of them having a 

 circular basin, but slightly raised from the ground and half within the 

 niche, while the other half projects beyond it ; the basin, which is large 

 enough for a man to bathe therein, receives cold and hot water from the 

 horns of a great mask, which takes the same in again at its mouth. In 

 one of the other four compartments is the door, the remaining three 

 divisions having windows and seats in them. These eight compartments 

 are separated by terminal figures which support the cornice whereon the 

 circular vaulting of the whole fabric reposes." 



Keysler writes of the Villa Imperiali about the year 1730 : "The eye 

 is charmed with a successive variety of the most elegant decorations, such 

 as beautiful hedges, espaliers, walks, and covered alleys of cypresses, box, 

 rosemary, vines, lemon, orange, and citron trees ; as also fine statues, 

 canals, fountains, grottoes, an aviary, a menagerie, &c." 



Perhaps the day may come when the municipality will awake to the 

 possibilities of this still beautiful garden, and put back some at least of 

 its older features. A few hedges of rosemary, myrtle, or box, would cost 

 little enough, and they are badly wanted, if only as a shelter from the sea 

 breezes. Furthermore, a lack of continuity in the architectural scheme 

 is caused by their absence. At the present day there is a tendency to 

 allow the villa to degenerate into a third-rate landscape garden, and the 

 firm outline of the older garden is gradually being replaced by the feeble 

 prettiness of acacia, " fir-tree," and palm. 



It is not possible to enlarge here on the beauty of the courtyards and 

 small gardens within the city ; what was written respecting them by 

 James Edward Smith about the year 1786 is to a great extent true at the 

 present time : " Many of the noble Genoese have a sort of hanging 

 gardens upon the bastions of the town, which, although often confined 

 in space, have a peculiarly romantic and singular effect. Bowers of 

 passion-flower, treillages of vines, terraces, and grass-plats, decorated with 

 all sorts of sweet-smelling flowers, offer themselves unexpectedly one after 



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