SIENESE VILLAS 
main house, said to have been built (or more probably 
rebuilt) in 1680 by Carlo Fontana for Flavio Chigi, 
nephew of Pope Alexander VII, is so small and modest 
of aspect that one is surprised to learn that it was one 
of the celebrated pleasure-houses of its day. It must 
be remembered, however, that with the exception of the 
great houses built near Rome by the Princes of the 
Church, and the country-seats of such reigning families 
as the Medici, the Italian villa was almost invariably a 
small and simple building, the noble proprietor having 
usually preferred to devote his wealth and time to the 
embellishment of his gardens. 
The house at Cetinale is so charming, with its stately 
double flight of steps leading up to the first floor, and 
its monumental doorway opening on a central salone, 
that it may well be ascribed to the architect of San 
Marcello in Rome, and of Prince Lichtenstein’s “Garden 
Palace” in Vienna. The plan of using the low-studded 
ground floor for offices, wine-cellar and store-rooms, 
while the living-rooms are all above-stairs, shows the 
hand of an architect trained in the Roman school. All 
the Tuscan and mid-Italian villas open on a level with 
their gardens, while about Rome the country houses, at 
least on one side, have beneath the living-rooms a ground 
floor generally used for the storage of wine and oil. 
But the glory of Cetinale is its park. Behind the 
villa a long grass-walk as wide as the house extends 
between high walls to a fantastic gateway, with statues 
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