VILLAS OF VENETIA 
with seventeenth-century frescoes and opening on a 
balustraded terrace guarded by marble divinities; or, 
taking another turn, one finds one’s self in a sham 
Gothic chapel or in a mediaeval chemin de ronde on the 
crenelated walls. This fantastic medley of styles, in 
conjunction with the unusual site of the castle, has 
produced several picturesque bits of garden, wedged 
between the walls and the hillside, or on the terraces 
overhanging the river ; but from the architectural point 
of view, the most interesting thing about Cattajo is the 
original treatment of the great stairway in the court. 
Six or seven miles from Battaglia, in a narrow and 
fertile valley of the Euganeans, lies one of the most 
beautiful pleasure-grounds in Italy. This is the garden 
of the villa at Val San Zibio. On approaching it, one 
sees, across a grassy common, a stately and ornate 
arch of triumph with a rusticated facade and a broken 
pediment enriched with statues. This arch, which looks 
as though it were the principal entrance-gate, appears 
to have been placed in the high boundary-wall merely 
in order to afford from the highway a vista of the 
chateau d' eau which is the chief feature of the gardens. 
The practice of breaking the wall to give a view of 
some special point in the park or garden was very com- 
mon in France, but is seldom seen in Italy, though 
there is a fine instance of it in the open grille below the 
Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati. 
The house at Val San Zibio is built with its back to 
