House and Garden 
gratulate himself that three good miles of hill 
separated him from the mob, even now shout¬ 
ing their welcome to Giovanni and Giuliano, 
Lorenzo and Giulio, Ippolito and Alessandro. 
just as it was then, the terrace garden re¬ 
mains, but below against the terrace wall we 
come to an eighteenth century rocaille foun¬ 
tain, the water flowing down artificial rocks 
into a large semicircular basin, round which 
a narrow bed is bright with every shade ol 
glowing petunias. Besides these, and in con¬ 
trast to their hot red colors, spiky aloes stretch 
their cold grey leaves from the rocks. A 
palm or two grow beside the fountain, tall 
San Domenico rises gently to the level of the 
little town, and between these two spurs Flor¬ 
ence, three miles off in the valley, basks in the 
sunlight, beautiful from whatever point seen. 
The villa is approached by a carriage drive 
which winds through the wood, edging the 
Bolognese road. The road to florence, 
through San Domenico, may be shorter, but 
the steepness of the hill down to the valley and 
up again renders it impracticable. I be 
woods through which the drive passes are of 
thickly grown ilexes, throwing a dense shadow 
on the road cut through them. Here and 
there you reach a grass opening; round some 
THE STABLES AND THE LEMON HOUSE 
enough to wave their topmost branches above 
the balustrade, at this point almost hidden 
under a wealth of creepers, among which the 
flower of the honeysuckle scents the air. 
Beyond this fountain, what was once podere 
is being converted into pleasure grounds of a 
less conventional, more modern type than are 
the beautiful gardens above. Grass slopes, 
shaded by clumps of shrubs, lead down to a 
small lake. The high ground to the west, tree- 
covered, stretches in an undulating line of dark 
green against the sky; a line pierced here and 
there by the spear-like point of the taller 
cypresses. To the east the hill leading up to 
flowering shrub or fine deodar, rhododen¬ 
dron and standard camellias bloom here in 
spring protected from every breath of the 
tramontanei by the trees around. The drive 
emerges at the far end of the terrace and runs 
in a perfectly straight line to the gates of the 
cortile, bordered to the north by the buildings 
of the wing, and to the south by a long row of 
lemon trees in pots, the pedestals of which 
stand in beds of violets and lilies-of-the-valley. 
Here, as elsewhere in Florentine gardens, 
quantities of gardenias and carnations are 
grown in pots and put out in the summer. 
Of special beauty are two huge bushes of 
77 
