FLORENTINE VILLAS 
beyond the Certosa of Val d’Ema, and looks from its 
lofty ridge across the plain toward Pistoia and the 
Apennines. This villa, called Ai Collazzi (now Bom- 
bicci), from the wooded hills which surround it, was 
built for the Dini family in the sixteenth century, and, 
as tradition avers, by no less a hand than Michelangelo’s. 
He is known to have been a close friend of the Dini, 
and is likely to have worked for them ; and if, as some 
experts think, certain details of the design, as well as the 
actual construction of the villa, are due to Santi di Tito, 
it is impossible not to feel that its general conception 
must have originated with a greater artist. 
The Villa Bombicci has in fact the Michelangelesque 
quality : the austerity, the breadth, the peculiar majesty 
which he imparted to his slightest creations. The house 
is built about three sides of a raised stone-flagged ter- 
race, the enclosing elevation consisting of a two-storied 
open arcade roofed by widely projecting eaves. The 
wings are solid, with the exception of the sides toward 
the arcade, and the windows, with their heavy pedi- 
ments and consoles, are set far apart in true Tuscan 
fashion. A majestic double flight of steps, flanked by 
shield-bearing lions, leads up to the terrace about which 
the house is built. Within is a high central saloon 
opening at the back on a stone perron , with another 
double flight of steps which descend in a curve to the 
garden. On this side of the house there is, on the upper 
floor, an open loggia of great beauty, consisting of three 
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