House and Garden 
last century one, on the ground floor of the 
old part of the house, was turned into a the¬ 
atre, which still exists. 
The road that passes the front of the villa is 
public, but the architect who planned the 
fa9ade has succeeded in making a good ap¬ 
proach by throwing back the low wall of the 
podere opposite and placing two pilasters 
where the road to Ouinto commences, just 
facing the front door of the villa. The road 
that runs past the house from south to north 
leads to the larger of the two roval villas, 
that of “ Petraia,” some fifteen hundred yards 
higher up the hill. 
In the cor tile there are two great gates, op¬ 
posite each other, one opening on the road, 
the other on to the garden and a broad carriage 
drive which, after passing between lemon 
trees and flower beds, runs through a dense 
avenue of ilexes, which meet overhead, and 
reaches the stable 225 yards further on. 
The flower garden on this, the east, side 
extends as far as the commencement of the 
ilex avenue. From this point a low orna¬ 
mental wall curves on each side towards the 
house, and built into it are stone seats. Ped¬ 
estals carrying stone tazzas rise from the 
wall on each side of the seats, and in the 
center of each semicircle stands a stone god¬ 
dess, her divine features worn by the sun 
and rain of nearly two centuries, still posing 
with affected grace over fountains and lemon 
trees. 
To the north, the garden does not extend 
beyond the line of the house. A wall sep¬ 
arates it from the podere. Beyond and 
against this wall runs a long lemon house, 
empty in summer, for the huge pots are then 
carried out and placed on stone pedestals 
some ten feet apart all along the line of 
flower beds. 
Gardenias and 
jasmine in 
pots grow to a 
large size, but 
these are also 
put in the 
house in win¬ 
ter. I n Sep- 
tember rows 
upon rows of 
chrysanthe¬ 
mums in pots 
are being prepared for the autumn, the bulbs 
are already planted in trays and pots, ready 
to be put under glass later on. The gar¬ 
dener of Villa Corsini has given special at¬ 
tention to the culture of ornamental cab¬ 
bages. These are planted out in September, 
and, as young plants, have nothing peculiar 
to recommend them ; but by the winter the 
leaves have acquired all sorts of delicate 
shades of pink, violet, grav, blue and pale 
green, and have curled themselves into all 
sorts of fanciful shapes. They are very 
useful as decoration in a town house, for 
they last well. 
The flower garden runs around two sides of 
the villa, upon the east and the south. Some 
old vines of white grapes run along the 
length of the eastern facade, between the first 
and second-storey windows, hanging their 
bunches out of reach of either. Besides the 
vines, white roses, mimosa, wistaria and 
other plants and creepers cover the walls. 
Oleanders of every shade, from white to 
pink, from pink to dark purply red, grow in 
the beds or in pots placed along the walls. 
The flowers are at their best in spring and 
early summer, for the great heat of August 
burns up everything. However much the 
garden is watered, by evening the leaves are 
drooping and the flowers faded. 
But the peculiar feature of the Villa Cor¬ 
sini is its ilex wood to the north of the 
house. The contrast on a hot summer’s 
day between the burning, glaring sunlight of 
the garden and the somber shade of the 
wood is delightful. As soon as you have 
stepped into it you seem to live in some 
garden once painted by Watteau and peopled 
by him with pretty playful groups of men 
and women who had no more serious busi¬ 
ness in I i fe 
than that of 
looking grace¬ 
ful and smi¬ 
ling sweetly 
at each other. 
The dark 
shade of the 
ilexes, the 
somber green 
of the ivy, the 
gray stone of 
the low, wide 
THE PLAN OK THE VILLA AND GROUNDS 
Especially measured and drawn for House and Garden 
129 
