i6o 
THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
CHAPTER XIV. 
THE VILLA. ALDOBRANDINI. 
T HP; Villa Aldobrandini is an immense structure, of which the spectator can hardly 
get the full effect close at hand. It rises up above the modern piazza at E'rascati, 
from which it is separated bv the curious slotted wall and railings illustrated (Figs. i66 
and 167). The lay-out in front is grand in its simple lines, which suit the rapidly rising 
ascent. This entrance is not actually used, and a long drive up the hillside roads brings the 
visitor round to an approach which enters into a roadway at the back of the house, where it is 
extended by the great hemicycle situated at the base of the cascade. Like all houses built 
on a plateau formed out of a hillside, the difficulty has been to secure an adequate area 
of ground at the rear. There is space here, but the scale of the hemicycle and of its 
features is so large that it fails to accord with that of the house. Such is the height of this 
retaining wall that the cascade itself is cut off from any ordinary point of view', 'fhe winding 
stairs in the wall lead up to the cascade, which, while on the same lines as that of the Torlonia, 
is distinctly inferior to it in design. It is flanked by two curious mosaic covered columns with 
spiral bands, down which the w'ater was arranged to swirl. Above the cascade the main stream 
runs swiftly in an open channel through a clearing in the plantation. There is a niche with 
mosaics and two figures like Dresden peasants, between which the W'ater pours down (Fig. 175). 
Behind this feature steps ascend to another level, also with an open channel for the stream, ending 
in a w’all of rough ruins w'hence the water flows down over tufa rockw'ork. This level is that of 
166. — ENCLOSING WALL OF THE VILLA ALDOBRANDINI TOWARDS THE PIAZZA AT FRASC.ATI. 
