THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
369 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
GENOESE GARDENS AND VILLAS: INTRODUCTORY. 
T he aichitecture of Genoa, owing to its special character, is of great interest to the 
modern world. As an outcome of successful commerce and prompted by a love of 
display, it possesses many of the drawbacks that are apt to accompany the rapid 
growth of wealth in a community where art is liable to be under a relaxed control in 
the element of selective taste. The redeeming element in Genoa mav, perhaps, be found to 
reside in an adequate scale — that quality of monumental dignity which counteracts the destruc- 
tive poison of meanness and vulgarity. The streets of old Genoa may thus have a lesson for 
the great modern cities. Alike in lay-out and in individual mass there is ample evidence of strong 
character. The merchant princes of Genoa carried the same feeling that leavened their 
palace architecture into 
the design of the great 
villas that lay outside, 
or just within, the ring 
of fortifications. These 
latter, now obsolete, have 
been superseded by iso- 
lated forts that crown 
the lofty hills surrounding 
the town, and the old 
villas are either absorbed 
into the city or are now 
surrounded by growing 
residential or industrial 
suburbs. This change 
in their setting must be 
constantlv borne in mind. 
The Villa Cambiaso 
is, probably, one hundred 
feet square, while the 
Villa Paradiso is a great 
oblong whose least 
dimension is perhaps 
about the same. With 
three storeys and a half- 
basement these palaces 
have adequate size to 
produce a striking effect 
by reason of their mass. 
When we add to this all 
the advantages derived 
from their position on the 
hillsides, with successive 388.— fountain in the cortile of the palazzo podesta 
terraces nobly embanked AT GENOA. 
