24 
THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
populace and the colony of foreigners. The walls were afterwards rebuilt by Pius IV, in the 
sixteenth century, and the earlier fortifications were almost entirely obliterated, 
Sixtus IV, the Pope to whom we owe the Sistine Chapel, first laid out the grounds 
extending up the hill as the gardens of the Vatican, The taste for gardens was just reviving, 
and the building of media;val castles was giving way to that of fascinating and luxurious villas ; 
and as Pope Sixtus created the garden, so it remains in great measure to-day. It has been 
enlarged from time to time, and in 1845 the grounds of the Hospital di San Spirito, a religious 
institution dating from the eighth century, were absorbed, A piece of the fayade of the Hospital, 
with its double cross, still stands against the walls, Pius IX laid out the carriage drive and built 
some supplementary walls. 
The gardens are entered from the Museum of Sculpture at the back of St, Peters’, and for 
more than a cursory glimpse of them a special permit is required. This is obtained from one 
of the Cardinals, and requires to be vised bv the major-domo, who is to be found near the 
33, — OVAL COURT OF VILLA FIA FROM THE SOUTH-WEST, 
entrance to the Scala Regia, Armed with this, a delicious early morning wander can be 
enjoyed. The gardens are cleared at twelve, when the Pope generally walks or drives 
there. 
They are of horseshoe shape. On entering, a noble terrace stretches away and surrounds 
two sides of a large formal garden. This terrace, which has a beautiful view of the great dome, 
is the place where Leo XHl so often sat, and where the well known picture of him, surrounded 
by his Cardinals, was painted. It is sheltered by a high close-clipped wall of greenery in 
which statues are set at intervals ; beyond are descending terraces with walks dark and shadv 
with ilexes. Openings cut here and there reveal fountains flinging high their silver showers, 
,At the end of the first stretch of terrace the carriage road mounts up the hill and encircles 
the grounds ; but more tempting than the wdde, well kept drive is an irregular opening in the 
green wall, through which you pass into a bosky wood. Wild and shady, this is exquisite in the 
spring-time when the elms and birches are fresh with tender green, the ground starred wdth 
