VILLAS OF VENETIA 
with its happy mingling of freedom and classicalism, its 
wonderful adaptation to climate and habits of life, its 
capricious grace of detail, and its harmony with the 
garden-architecture which was designed to surround it. 
The Villa Capra has not preserved its old gardens, 
and at the Villa Giacomelli, at Maser, Palladio’s other 
famous country house, the grounds have been so mod- 
ernized and stripped of all their characteristic features 
that it is difficult to judge of their original design ; but 
one feels that all Palladio’s rural architecture lacked 
that touch of fancy and freedom which, in the Roman 
school, facilitated the transition of manner from the 
house to the garden-pavilion, and from the pavilion to 
the half-rustic grotto and the woodland temple. 
The Villa Valmarana, also at Vicenza, on the Monte 
Berico, not far from the Rotonda, has something of the 
intimate charm lacking in the latter. The low and 
simply designed house is notable only for the charming 
frescoes with which Tiepolo adorned its rooms ; but the 
beautiful loggia in the garden is attributed to Palladio, 
and this, together with the old beech-alleys, the charm- 
ing frescoed fountain, the garden-wall crowned by 
Venetian grotesques, forms a composition of excep- 
tional picturesqueness. 
The beautiful country-side between Vicenza and Ve- 
rona is strewn with old villas, many of which would 
doubtless repay study ; but there are no gardens of 
note in this part of Veneto, except the famous Giusti 
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