386 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



October, 1910 



in these California foothills. It is no wonder that the 

 Duke of the Abruzzi and Prince Ferdinand of Savoy were 

 strongly reminded of their sunny Italy, and felt at home 

 here after traveling so long in foreign countries. 



At the end of a long avenue of blossoming accacias, 

 flanked with endless rows of vines, the visitor gets his 

 first view of the slate-roofed villa, nestling in the midst 

 of a tall bamboo border, clumps of spineless cacti, feathery 

 palms and orange and olive trees, for Asti, it must be re- 

 membered, lies in the very heart of the northern citrus 

 belt of California. There are several fountains playing 

 as you pass the well-kept lawns and the air is sweet with 

 the perfume of roses, heliotrope, and jasmine. 



Almost before you realize it, you have passed through 

 the gleaming white columns of the vestibule entrance to 



caught through the embroidery of flowering shrubs and 

 ampelopsis that drape the colonnade. 



In the center of the garden, a small fountain rises above 

 the blossoms and beyond, as a fitting background for the 

 open peristyle, are two venerable oak trees, their thick 

 trunks covered with green moss and their lofty crests fes- 

 tooned with wild grapevines that have been allowed to 

 clamor up their sides and follow their own sweet will, 

 dropping fantastic streamers that sway with every passing 

 breeze. 



The ancient Romans spent a great part of their time 

 out of doors and in such a peristyle as this, an open-air 

 life must have been very pleasant indeed. One side of the 

 odorous garden is always in the shade and during the hot 

 days the little fountain gives freshness to the surround- 



1 he garden front of tlie villa 



the villa. You are in a wide hallway that separates 

 reception- and dining-rooms and there, before you, is the 

 peristyle garden with all the rooms of the house facing 

 on it. The sheer beauty of the scene makes you halt and 

 gasp with surprise and delight. The vision is an enchant- 

 ing one. 



Immediately in the foreground is a slender column of 

 white Carrera marble, with a tracery of ivy leaves in has 

 relief upon it, capped by a double-headed likeness of Bac- 

 chus and Ariadne, a duplicate of the original in the Vetti 

 House garden and commonly used in ancient days for boun- 

 dary stones. At either corner of the court, on pedestals, 

 are nude figures of children each holding in one hand a 

 bunch of grapes and in the other a goose. Glimpses of 

 cinnabar red walls, decorated with broad black bands, are 



ing air, while at night it lulls one to peaceful slumber with 

 its pleasant babble of falling water. 



In the dreamy court at night, the silvery moonlight makes 

 it easy for the imagination to conjure up the past in every 

 detail that has been reproduced at Asti. The marble stat- 

 uettes, the fountains, the vases of flowers, the columns, white 

 and tranquil, close every vista; and towering above all 

 are the aged oaks and the same glittering stars that were 

 seen on the plains of Herculaneum before the withering 

 blasts of Vesuvius made scorise of that fair landscape. 



While Mr. Sbarboro made the court the principal fea- 

 ture of his summer home, he has provided other attractions 

 and beauty spots. There is an open-air breakfast-room, 

 under a canopy of orange trees and an orchard containing a 

 variety of fruit trees. 



