Byways in southern Tuscany . Magliano. Church of the Annunziata CHAPTER V Magliano—Pereta—Scansano—Roccalbegna Roc-CHETTE Di Fazio—Compagnatico—Paganico AGLIANO is a little aristocrat amonghill towns. As you approach it fromthe sea the circle of its mellow goldenwalls rests like a crown upon theeminence it covers. Green banks lieabout it full of tangled vines and flow-ering bushes, and not far from thegate a twisted olive droops to shelter alittle shrine. At certain points highup in the walls small, rectangular openings pierce thesurface like windows peering from a cliff, but the bannersthat f
Byways in southern Tuscany . Magliano. Church of the Annunziata CHAPTER V Magliano—Pereta—Scansano—Roccalbegna Roc-CHETTE Di Fazio—Compagnatico—Paganico AGLIANO is a little aristocrat amonghill towns. As you approach it fromthe sea the circle of its mellow goldenwalls rests like a crown upon theeminence it covers. Green banks lieabout it full of tangled vines and flow-ering bushes, and not far from thegate a twisted olive droops to shelter alittle shrine. At certain points highup in the walls small, rectangular openings pierce thesurface like windows peering from a cliff, but the bannersthat float from these casements are the product of humblelaundry work. At the top no Guelf or Ghibelline battle-ments meet the eye, but instead a finish of archetti verygraceful and decorative. 65. BYWAYS IN SOUTHERN TUSCANY The mediaeval age had come to an end at the timethese walls rose in the fifteenth century. Very massiveare they and strengthened by many a ruined projectingtow^er, here and there hung w^ith the green of vigorous although in its present exterior Magliano is moreyouthful than many of its sister tow^ns it ow^ns an objectprecious to history, for in the flanking tovi^er of its southerngateway, the Porta San Giovanni, which belongs to anearlier date, is embedded a shield bearing the coat of armsof the Aldobrandeschi, the red lion rampant and the im-perial eagle. Small and insignificant it appears there; thecareless eye would quite overlook it, yet it is the onlyheraldic memorial of the family left in its original positionin all the broad Maremma where those famous and fero-cious warriors held sway as far back as the eleventhcentury. The tower has crumbled till but two or threecourses of stone remain above the little shield; may thepeople of Magliano have a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjecttuscany, bookyear1919
