THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
149 
CHAPTER XIII. 
THE VILLA TORLONIA. 
T WO stone piers crowned with eagles give access to a long avenue running direct to 
the grey mass of the villa at the far end whose brown roofs are spotted with golden 
lichen (Fig, 155). On the right the tree-planted avenue is held up by walls and over- 
hangs the hill slopes, while on the left the vast and complicated staircases and carriage- 
ways give access to a mighty upper terrace, from which the great cascade and features of the 
gardens at the higher levels are reached. It is this immense provision, as it were, for a great 
outdoor reception that captivates the mind at the Torlonia. 
It seems as if “ all Rome ” might drive out and ascend these stairways and approaches 
for an uncrowded reception al fresco. Besides the double sloping roadways there are two 
great stairways, each forty feet in width, and two of half that width. Each ascent is in three 
flights of thirteen, eleven and ten steps, with broad landings between. The steps are eighteen 
inches by six inches. The great terrace at the top is, say, two hundred yards by twenty- 
one yards wide ; all dimensions of an extraordinary stateliness. The great cascade is 
centred upon one of these great stairways, being approached by an avenue seventeen yards wide 
running through a plantation, w'hich is cut by cross roads with fountains at the intersections. 
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at,,-' 
155. — THE APPROACH. 
