Byways in southern Tuscany . d by the or three portraits upon those walls gaze down out ofthe past to awaken curiosity and interest, especially thatof a certain Isabella who looks a spoiled beauty and aboutwhom a shadowy story lurks that refuses to come into thelight. Leaving Montelifre it is but three miles to Trequanda,another one of the little neighborhood of towns upon thesehills. From a distance its outline describes an ovalagainst the slope it lies upon and it looks a very centre ofthrifty cultivation among haycocks, fruit trees, and dottedfarmhouses. On a nearer approach it i
Byways in southern Tuscany . d by the or three portraits upon those walls gaze down out ofthe past to awaken curiosity and interest, especially thatof a certain Isabella who looks a spoiled beauty and aboutwhom a shadowy story lurks that refuses to come into thelight. Leaving Montelifre it is but three miles to Trequanda,another one of the little neighborhood of towns upon thesehills. From a distance its outline describes an ovalagainst the slope it lies upon and it looks a very centre ofthrifty cultivation among haycocks, fruit trees, and dottedfarmhouses. On a nearer approach it is to be seen thatthe ground it covers is not low but rises to a proper eleva-tion for the foundation of its great brooding castle whichrests there, long and level but for the big round tower, andthat, too, has been reduced and flattened. Passing throughthe gate the small piazza is close by and the castle courtgives upon it. When I visited it I was at once taken incharge by four of its kindly citizens and one of them, the 230. BYWAYS IN SOUTHERN TUSCANY Cavaliere C, offered with true Tuscan hospitality to showme his garden, his apartments in the castle, and hisbella vista. There was a well in his courtyard and thegreenery of vines and potted plants gave a pretty habi-table touch. The interior of the building has been entirelytamed to domestic uses, and the eager throwing open ofshutters displayed many rooms, all furnished and deco-rated in the modern manner but all unused. I do not knowwhere in the unlimited spaces of such a building thecavalieres bachelor quarters may have been hidden, for Iwas shown only the portions that were a matter of pridewith him, the bare, uninhabited air of which it was im-possible to grow enthusiastic over; but no effort wasneeded to praise the lovely prospect from his windows orthe pleasant shade of his garden where I was pressed toaccept a little refreshment, after which we visited thepretty Romanesque church of San Pietro on the oppositeside of the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjecttuscany, bookyear1919
