Italian villas and their gardens . sure-house; 56 FLORENTINE VILLAS yet so little are they out of harmony with the surround-ing scene that nature has gradually taken them back toherself, has turned them into a haunted grove in whichthe statues seem like sylvan gods fallen asleep in theirnative shade. There are other Florentine villas which preserve tracesof their old gardens. The beautiful Villa Palmieri haskept its terrace-architecture, Lappeggi its fine doublestairway, the Villa Danti its grass-walk leading to agiant on the hilltop, and Castel Pulci its stately fagadewith a sky-line of statu
Italian villas and their gardens . sure-house; 56 FLORENTINE VILLAS yet so little are they out of harmony with the surround-ing scene that nature has gradually taken them back toherself, has turned them into a haunted grove in whichthe statues seem like sylvan gods fallen asleep in theirnative shade. There are other Florentine villas which preserve tracesof their old gardens. The beautiful Villa Palmieri haskept its terrace-architecture, Lappeggi its fine doublestairway, the Villa Danti its grass-walk leading to agiant on the hilltop, and Castel Pulci its stately fagadewith a sky-line of statues and the long cypress avenueshown in Zocchis print; even Pratolino, so cruellydevastated, still preserves Giovanni da Bolognas colossalfigure of the Apennines. But where so much of greatervalue remains to be described, space fails to linger overthese fragments which, romantic and charming as theyare, can but faintly suggest, amid their altered surround-ings, the vanished garden-plans of which they formed apart. 57 SIENESE VILLAS. II SIENESE VILLAS IN the order of age, the first country-seat near Sienawhich claims attention is the fortress-villa of mention is made of the castle of Belcaro inearly chronicles and documents, and it seems to havebeen a place of some importance as far back as theeleventh century. It stands on a hilltop clothed withoak and ilex in the beautiful wooded country to thewest of Siena, and from its ancient walls one looks forthover the plain to the hill-set city and its distant circle ofmountains. It was perhaps for the sake of this enchant-ing prospect that Baldassare Peruzzi, to whom the trans-formation of Belcaro is ascribed, left these crenellatedwalls untouched, and contented himself with adornino-the inner court of the castle with a delicate mask ofRenaissance architecture. A large bare villa of noarchitectural pretensions was added to the mediaevalbuildings, and Peruzzi worked within the enclosed quad-rangle thus formed. A handsom
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