THE GARDEXS OF ITALY. 
150 
One of the ways is a pleached alley. The main avenue leads to an oblong clearing about 
ninety yards bv forty-five yards. From the centre of the long side of this open space 
and on the axis of the avenue the great cascade descends the hillside. The slope is upheld by 
a long wall fifteen feet high, decorated with twentv-one arched niches, in front of which is a 
narrow canal that expands into a large central basin (Fig. 163). You ascend through certain 
niches, which are nine and fourteen in the series, giving access to vaulted stairways, and find 
vourself at the level at which the cascade starts. It has a rise of seventy-four steps. At the head 
of the cascade is a balcony commanding a fine view down the axis line of the approach. The 
great cluster of trees backing the great terrace is distinct in the foreground. Immediately behind 
is a pool basin about thirty-six yards across, set in a circular clearing and surrounded by trees 
with stone seats at intervals. 
Radiating paths are driven through the wood, and the axis line finishes by a path 
leading to the boundary wall of the property. The villa itself is in a ejuiet Tuscan 
156. — THE CENTRAL STAIRWAY UP TO THE GREAT TERRACE. 
Style. As seen from the avenue, it is an interesting composition ; the advanced wing on the 
left acts as repeat of the tower-like mass on the right and gives an effect of balance without 
symmetry. It is built of rough local stone plastered, with tufa piers and dressings, delightful 
in colour and roughness. The villa has three storeys and a raised feature, forming a symmetrical 
design on its western face. A forecourt about sixty yards square, laid out on this western 
front, is entered from the main avenue. There is a semicircular bastion extension forty 
yards across, which is balustraded round and commands a fine view over the hill slopes lying 
below, from which it is built up. A raised basin, with a curvilinear body of built brickwork 
with a stone curb, is flanked by two fine trees, and forms the centralising feature of this 
forecourt. There are two wall fountains, with shells in their niche heads, set at an angle to 
the entrance doorwav of the villa. A. T. B. 
The Colonna claim descent from the Conti, one of the oldest families in Italy. The last ol 
the race, Fulvia Conti, married a Sforza in 1650, and by an alliance with the Sforza-Cesarini 
