GARDENS OF ESTE AND GONZAGA PRINCES 
were broken,” wrote the secretary Stabellino to Isabella 
at Mantua, “ I need say no more when you learn that 
this solitary knight-errant all in white was none other 
than our own illustrious Prince Ercole.” 1 
It was Ercole’s successor, Alfonso the Second, who 
conceived the idea of connecting all the palaces and 
gardens in different parts of the city by a road and 
waterway reserved exclusively for the use of the Court. 
The Via Ducale, as it was called, consisted of a canal 
flowing between grassy banks and flowering shrubs, 
with a carriage road on either side shaded by tall elms 
and plane trees, and a footway bordered with pleached 
olive trees and a thick growth of vines. By this means 
the ducal family and their guests could go by boat or 
carriage or else on foot round three parts of the city 
without being exposed to the public gaze. Alfonso 
himself, who took genuine delight in gardening, often 
spent whole mornings riding along the Viale from one 
villa to another, planning fresh improvements and 
examining his shrubs and flowers. 
Starting from the Gate of the Lions, the Viale led 
through the Castello Gardens and the grounds of 
Alfonso the First’s Castellina to the Porta S. Benedetto, 
past the monastery of S. Gabriele, under a wall covered 
with a trellis of pomegranate trees. Then, turning a 
sharp corner, it followed the western ramparts, past the 
1 B. Fontana, Renata di Francia, i. 156. 
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