___________

From the Porta alla Croce (S. Salvi).

Porta alla Croce in Piazza Beccaria (sig photo)

A little beyond the Porta alla Croce c. 1284, in the Piazza Beccaria designed by Guiseppi Poggi we pass the Ponte d’ Affrico, where Corso Donati, fleeing from Florence and pursued by the soldiers of the Signoria, September 15, 1308, fell from his horse, and was killed by striking his head upon a stone. Here Cecco D’Ascoli was burned September 16, 1327, all Florence looking on.

Just S. of Piazza Beccaria, named for the Marquis Beccaria (1738-94), an Englishman who attempted to reform the legal system to treat all equally, is the Headquarters of the State Archives, 1972-88 by Italo Gamberini. Bounded by viale Giovane Italia and viale Giovanni Amendola, the Archives occupy a triangular piece of land. On the E. wing facing viale Amendola, the cantilevered floors jut out progressively as they ascend the side of the building. The State archives were formerly housed in the Uffizi.

Benedetto Rovezzano reliefs, c. 1507 (sig photo)

Benedetto da Rovezzano (c. 1507), reliefs from the tomb of S. Giovanni Gualberto in the monastery, now museum, of S. Salvi, where soldiers were quartered in 1530, by whom they were terribly mutilated. The figures, however, glow with expression and power. The face of the dead saint has fortunately escaped.  The S. Giovanni Gualberto shrine was the masterpiece of the sculptor. In 1925 the reliefs were in the Bargello as noted in the 9^th edition of Florence.

The parish church has some good pictures by Raffaellino del Garbo and others; in the portico is a S. Michael by Benedetto da Rovezzano.

In the fields between S. Salvi and the Via del Pontassieve is the Palazzo del Guarleone, which once belonged to the abbess of Vallombrosa. Here Henry VII. encamped before the hostile city in 1312, and was baffled. It was here that Benedetto da Rovezzano worked for ten years at the marvellous reliefs intended to adorn the tomb of S. Giovanni Gualberto; but they were never taken to their destination, and remaining in the Palazzo del Guarleone, were mutilated by the imperial soldiers, who took possession of it during the siege of Florence.

It is by the Porta S. Croce the traveller must leave Florence for the monasteries of the Casentino, if he begins his excursion by driving to Pelago (see ch. vii.).

Nelly Erichson, Villa di Poggio Gherardo, c. 1904

Bus no. 10 departs Stazione Santa Maria Novella and Piazza San Marco to La Mensola, at the foot of the hill of Settignano. It passes the Villa Fontebuono, where Varchi wrote his “Storia Fiorentina.” A hill on the left at two miles is crowned by the fine old castellated villa of Poggio Gherardo, which belonged to the Magaldi, who sold it to the Baroncelli in 1331. (Subsequently it was the residence of the historian and author Janet Ross (1842–1927).

It was bought by the Gherardi in 1433, not long before the great plague of Florence, and they held it until I888.¹Arms of Gherardi: Or, a cross engrailed azure, on a canton four stars. This was the Primo Palagio del Rifugio of the “Decamerone,” and is described by Boccaccio, who himself spent four days here. It looks down upon the magnificent plain watered by the Affrico and Mensola, sung by Boccaccio in his “Ninfale Fiesolano.” Being one of the line of fortresses erected to defend Florence against the Casentino (Poggio, Vincigliata, Poggio Gherardo, Torre dei Gandi, &c.), the house was partially destroyed by Sir John Hawkwood.

San Martino a Mensola, Nave (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Below it is the very ancient church of S. Martino a Mensola, which was restored by S. Andrew, the companion of S. Donatus, the Irish missionary bishop of Fiesole. He established a monastery near the church, where he died soon after his master, miraculously comforted on his deathbed by the presence of his sister Bridget, whom he had left in Ireland forty years before, and in a glorious radiance of light “which drew all the people of Fiesole around him, as if summoned by a heavenly trumpet.” After his death Bridget lived in a hermitage at Opacum, now Labaco, high in the mountains, till her death in 870. The embalmed body of S. Andrew rests beneath the high-altar. Formerly the holy-water bason rested on a pedestal inscribed “Help, Help, Ghod”—a relic of the Irish S. Andrew’s rule. Some ancient arches and several curious pictures²Attributed to Bernardo Orcagna, Fra Angelico, Neri de’ Bicci, and Cosimo Rosselli. remain in the church, which was restored in 1281, in 1340, and finally by the Gherardi in 1450. The church in the Via dei Magazzini at Florence was founded by S. Andrew in 786 in connection with S. Martino a Mensola.

Telemaco Signorini, View of the Piazzetta of Settignano, c. 1880 (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Settignano claims to derive its name from Septimius Severus. It was the native place of many great sculptors, especially of the famous Desiderio, by whom there is a beautiful relief in the oratory of SS. Trinità.

In the piazza is a statue of the patriot Niccolò Tommaseo, buried in the cemetery.

Giuseppi Zocchi, Villa Gamberaia, c. 1744

Near Settignano is the Villa Buonarotti, which, till quite recently, remained in the family, but is now the property of Count Telfy Zima. At what time this came into the Buonarotti family is uncertain, but it is tolerably certain that Michelangelo was sent out here as a baby, after Italian custom, to be nursed in a family of scarpellini or stone-cutters. On a wall in one of the rooms may still be seen the famous satyr which Michelangelo is said to have drawn with a burning stick taken from the fire. Another villa near Settignano is Gamberaja, which belonged in the XV. c. to the Gamberelle, then passed (1592) to the Riccialbani, who rebuilt it. The Villa Verone or Del Turco once belonged to the Portinari; the Villa Bourbon del Monte to the Strozzi, then to the Salviati. The little Oratory of Vannella, in the valley of Fossataccio, contains a Presentation of the Virgin by Filippo Lippi.

Porta Romana (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

From the Porta Romana—Poggio Imperiale; the Certosa of the Val d’ Ema and the Sanctuary of the Madonna dell’ Impruneta; Bellosguardo.

By the street opposite the gate we soon reach the church of S. Gaggio, occupying the site of a tower where the Paterini took refuge from S. Peter Martyr in the XIII. c. A convent was founded here by Donna Nera Manieri, and enriched by the Corsini as a retreat for the wives and daughters of the Cavalieri Gaudenti, a noble corporation devoted to peacemaking and charity. Behind the high-altar is the tomb of the foundress, and that of Donna Ghita Corsini. Other Corsini monuments have been taken hence to S. Spirito. The street, right, on issuing from the gate follows the old walls, and is called Via Petrarca.

Giuseppi Zocchi, Poggio Imperiale, c. 1744

Close to the gate on the left is the entrance of the fine cypress avenue of Poggio Imperiale, adorned with statues of Dante and Petrarch from the old façade of the cathedral destroyed in 1587. The avenue leads to a palace built for the Grand-Duchess Maddalena of Austria, wife of Cosimo II. Since 1865 it has been the Conservatorio della SS. Annunziata (Istituto Statale della Ss. Annunziata) for the education of young women of the “better classes,” by which was meant daughters of the nobility.

After the Baroncelli, the villa which first occupied this site belonged to the Salviati, then to the Medici. Cosimo I. gave it to his daughter Isabella, the very unfaithful wife (1563) of Paolo Giordano Orsini, by whom she was strangled in her bedroom.

The existing palace now contains little of interest except frescoes by Matteo Rosselli depicting the story of the Medici.

It was here that the famous political duel was fought by Ludovico Martelli and Dante da Castiglione against Giovanni Bandini and Bertino Aldobrandini. In this palace also, when Carlo Alberto of Sardinia was living here in exile, his infant son Vittorio Emanuele was with difficulty saved from being burnt to death by his nurse.

Behind the palace rises the hill of Arcetri, celebrated for its sweet wine called La Verdea: —

Torre del Gallo (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

In the chapel of the delightful Villa Capponi (which is passed on the way to Arcetri) is a fine “Adoration of the Shepherds” by Tommaso di Stefani, a pupil of Lorenzo di Credi.

Close by, on a hill top, on the left of the road, is the Torre del Gallo, which is believed to have been the observatory of Galileo, where, when a prisoner, he studied the moon.

The tower and its surroundings have greatly suffered under the present proprietor.

Close to the Porta Romana is the Pottery of the Fratelli Cantagalli, in which a manufactory of artistic maioliche—decorative and useful—has recently been established. The proprietors have aimed at reviving the decorative taste which inspired artists of the sixteenth century in the famous potteries of Cafaggiolo, Urbino, Pesaro, and Gubbio. All the artists employed have been taught by the study not only of the ancient maioliche in the different Italian museums, but of the fifteenth and sixteenth century frescoes. It is thus sought to give the manufacture an exclusively Italian character.

A road which turns to the right at the Pian dei Giullari leads to S. Margherita a Montici, with fine views.

Certosa of the Val d’ Ema, Cloister in 1878 (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

About 2½ miles from the Porta Romana, by the direct road beyond the village of Galuzzo or Bus 37 from stazione Santa Maria Novella, on the hill of Montaguto, is the Certosa del Galluzzo (Certosa of the Val d’ Ema). The position is beautiful, with lovely views, and the convent, with the aspect of a mediaeval fortress, crowning a cypress-crested hill, is very picturesque. The Certosa was founded in 1338 by Niccolò Acciaiuoli (b. 1310), Grand Seneschal and chief adviser to Queen Joanna I. of Naples, and its fortifications were especially granted by the Republic. A small number of Cistercian monks remained here until 2016 when the monastery closed: formerly there were eighty-six.

The principal Church is over-decorated with frescoes, marbles, and pietre-dure. The pictures relating to the life of S. Bruno are by Poccetti. To the right, through the chapel of S. John Baptist, which has a good picture by Benvenuti, we enter a beautiful gothic church of 1341, of which the architecture is attributed to Orcagna. It contains some good Florentine stained glass; a picture of S. Francis receiving the Stigmata by Cigoli; a Crucifixion by Giotto (?); and a picture by Fra Angelico.

The Palazzo degli Studi contains five much damaged lunettes by Pontormo formerly in the cloister: The Agony in the Garden, Christ before Pilate, The Way to Golgotha, a Pietà, and The Risen Christ. Pontormo had come to the Certosa to escape the plague in 1522 and according to payment records began working shortly after his arrival. At the time Pontormo was much taken with the engravings ofAlbrecht Dürer and adopted a quasi-Germanic style. Approximately 30 years after Pontormo completed the fresci, Jacopo Chimenti, known as Empoli, painted copies, which reveal the coloring of the originals. Empoli’s copies are located at the Certosa.

In the Crypt, before the high-altar, are the exceptionally-preserved tombs of the founder and his family.

Boccaccio, in a letter to Zenobio di Strada, lamented Lorenzo’s death, and referred to him as “quello giovane egregio e d’indole ammirevole, Lorenzo, primogenito di questo tuo magno.” [that distinguished and admirable young man, Lorenzo, the eldest son of this great man of yours.] In the same letter he reminds Strada that Niccolò Acciajuoli was wont often to call him Giovanni della Tranquillita.⁵V. Le Lettere di Giov. Boccaccio.

Francesco da Sangallo,
Tomb of Leonardo Buonafede (detail),
1545 (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

In a side chapel of the crypt is the tomb of Angelo Acciaiuolo, Bishop of Ostia, 1409,⁶The family of the Acciaiuoli (Acciajo = steel) fled to Florence from Brescia in 1160 to evade the persecutions of Frederick Barbarossa, and was admitted to the magistracy in 1282. Its most illustrious member was Niccolò) in the XIV c., but endless bishops and archbishops, and three cardinals (Agnolo, Filippo, and Niccolò), were of the same race. by Donatello, with a border of fruit and flowers added by Giuliano di San Gallo. The small cloister is by Brunelleschi, and has some lovely stained glass by Giovanni da Udine. The chapter-house contains a Crucifixion by Mariotto Albertinelli; a Madonna and Child with saints by Perugino; and in the middle of the pavement, in a perfect abandonment of repose, the noble figure of Leonardo Buonafede, Bishop of Cortona, and Superior of this convent (ob. 1545), by Francesco di San Gallo, son of Giuliano.

The exquisite Della Robbia lunettes of the great cloister were removed to the Accademia in the time of Napoleon I. They had scarcely been restored to the monastery when one side of the beautiful cloister was ruined by the earthquake of 1895.

The Refectory is shown, in which the monks dine on Sundays, released on that day for two hours from their vow of silence, though a reader officiates during dinner from a pulpit in the corner. At the Drogeria, the famous Alkermes and other liqueurs, manufactured in the monastery are sold.

William Michael Roberts Quick

Madonna dell’Impruneta

Two and a half miles further, reached by a long but easy ascent, beautifully situated amid the olive-clad hills, is the shrine of La Madonna dell’ Impruneta, one of the most important places of pilgrimage in Tuscany. The church was built in 1593 by Francesco Buondelmonte, and adorned in the seventeenth century by the Confraternita of the Stigmata of S. Francesco with a handsome doric atrium. Here is preserved the image attributed to S. Luke the Evangelist, but which the learned Dr. Lami says was the work of one Luca in the eleventh century, who, on account of his piety, was called saint, whence the tradition. It is said to have been found by a workman buried in the soil of Impruneta, and to have uttered a cry as the spade struck it. On all great occasions of danger, pestilence, or famine, this Madonna has been carried in state by a bare-footed procession to Florence, but even then has always been Veiled—“The Hidden Mother.” Thus it was carried to Florence during the great and terrible plague on April 1, 1400. Over the high-altar is a crucifix by Giovanni da Bologna; and in the Sacristy a curious Madonna and Saints of the School of Giotto. In the nave are pictures by Jacopo da Empoli, Passignano, and Cigoli. The church is backed by Poggio S. Maria, and occupies one side of an immense piazza, decorated with loggias of 1663–70. Here on S. Luke’s Day, October 18, is held the Fair of the Impruneta, for horses, mules, &c., frequented by all the country-folk around, a most picturesque sight. The piazza is the subject of a picture by Callot in the Accademia at Venice.

We must turn to the right from the Porta Romana to ascend the hill of Bellosguardo for the sake of the prospect.

Bellosguardo

At the foot of the hill is the Church of S. Francesco di Paola.

Most lovely is the view from the summit of the hill, especially from the terrace of the principal villa—Michelozzo—which has a fine old tower of Medici date; though long previously the father of Guido Cavalcanti, the poet, owned it; and it remained Cavalcanti property until 1447, when Tommaso Capponi bought it.

The scenery of the hills behind Bellosguardo is known to have suggested that of Monte Beni, so beautifully described in “Transformation.”⁷Also known as The Marble Faun.

The villa where Milton found him, however, was at Arcetri.

On a spur of the hill to the north of the wooded height of Bellosguardo is the Convent of Monte Oliveto, containing in its Refectory an annunciation of Domenico Ghirlandajo.⁸In 1869, two years after the painting was transferred to the Uffizi, Baron Liphart identified the Annunciation as an early work of Leonardo da Vinci. Most experts agree. Hence one may descend to the iron bridge which leads to the Cascine.

Porta San Frediano (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

From the Porta S. Frediano (La Badia di Settimo, Signa, Malmantile Artemino).

This side of Florence is less well known than the others, but by no means less interesting. The road—Via Pisana—runs through the Pianura di Ripoli, an exquisitely rich and fertile valley, and there is a tramway by which Lastra a Signa may be reached in one hour from the Piazza Castello at Florence (fare 1^st cl. 70 c., 2^nd cl. 50 c.). On the right of the valley is a beautiful chain of mountains, of which the principal is Monte Morello, which serves as a weather-gauge to the whole countryside, according to the old proverb:

Quando monte Morello ha il cappello,
Villan, prendi il mantello.⁹When Monte Morello has a hat, / Countryman, take a cloak.

Just before reaching Legnaja, a road turns off (left) to Scandici, abounding in nightingales, where the Villa Passerini occupies the site of an ancient castle of the Bagnesi, and the excursion may be continued to S. Paolo and to S. Andrea a Mosciano and the remains of a castle of the Acciaiuoli.)

From La Casellina on the Via Pisana a side road leads (left) to the picturesquely-situated XIII. c. church of S. Martino alla Palma, with a wide-spreading portico. There are enchanting views from this spot, and though the hill (159 met.) is steep, the drive to S. Martino is one of the most beautiful near Florence.

Four and a half miles from Florence, at half a mile to the right of the road near the village of S. Colombano, is the old Cistercian Convent of La Badia a Settimo, now a private villa. Founded by a Conte di Borgomuro, about 984, it has noble machicolated walls and a fine old gateway of a later period, the front of which is decorated with a figure of Christ enthroned between two saints, one of the largest works in terra-cotta in Tuscany—built, not let into the wall. The beautiful campanile, after the model of S. Niccolò at Pisa, is attributed to Niccolò Pisano. In the church are a Robbia frieze and a rich altar of pietradura. An Aumbrey is attributed to Desiderio da Settignano. Some pictures by pupils of Verocchio and Ghirlandajo were removed in 1884, and are now in the museum at S. Apollonia.

Filippo di Antonio Filippelli (1460–1506), Trial by Fire of Pietro Igneo

In Lent 1670, 8000 persons collected here to witness the trial by fire, in which the Vallombrosan monk Pietro Aldobrandini (afterwards canonised as S. Pietro Igneo) walked barefooted, unhurt, through a furnace, to prove an accusation of simony brought by S. Giovanni Gualberto against Pietro di Pavia, Bishop of Florence.

On the left of the road are Castel Pulci¹⁰Reflecting the views of a time past, St. Clair Baddeley observed that the Castel was “now a lunatic asylum” in 1925 and the charming old Villa of Castagnolo, once the property of the Arte della Lana, but in 1210 bought by a Della Stufa, who belonged to the Arte della Tela. Of this family were the Beato Girolamo of the Minori Osservanti di S. Francesco and the Beato Lottaringo, one of the seven founders of the SS. Annunziata. Many points on the hills behind Castagnolo are full of picturesque interest.

Lastra a Signa City Wall (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Half a mile farther is the interesting old town of Lastra a Signa, preserving intact its machicolated mediaeval walls and its three gateways. It contains many picturesque architectural fragments, especially a vaulted and frescoed loggia, very rich in colour, above which is the modern theatre. Signa is well worth a visit by those who stay long in Florence, and may be reached by railway as well as by tram. Its population was once entirely employed in the plaiting of straw hats—cappelli di paglia.

Two and a half miles from Signa, by a steep ascent is the curious fortified village of Malmantile. The road thither, beneath the old convent of S. Lucia, through a mountain gorge, is lovely, and the place itself, on the wild hill-top, is striking, being so strongly fortified, yet so small. It long resisted a siege by the Florentines, which is the subject of the curious poems “L’Assedio” and “La Scacciata di Malmantile,” written by Lippo Lippi early in the seventeenth century. The walls now enclose only a single street of cottages.

View of the Malmantile wall and countryside from the North-East (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

The lovely effects of the morning mist in this enchanting district are happily described by Ouida.

Giuseppi Zocchi, Villa Artemoni, c. 1744

Three miles beyond Signa is the delightful Medici villa of Artemino (“Ferdinanda”), with exceptional views toward Florence. In this neighbourhood also, much nearer Signa, is the noble villa of Le Selye (Buontalenti), which belonged to Filippo Strozzi, who married the famous Clarice, daughter of Pietro de’ Medici. Afterwards the villa belonged to the Salviati. It was from one of its beautiful loggias that Galileo observed the ring of Saturn and the sun-spots. Close by is an old monastery, with the chapel where S. Andrea Corsini said his first mass. The lower hills are covered with vineyards, producing the celebrated wine of which Redi sings:

From the Porta al Prato (Poggio a Cajano, Petraja, Castello).

Beyond the Barriera di S. Donato and behind the Cascine, is (at about 1 mile) the Villa S. Donato, built in the early part of the XIX. c., on the site of an old Augustinian monastery, by the Russian Count Nicholas Demidoff, who, in recognition of his magnificent charities, received the title of Principe di San Donato from the Grand-Duke. His son Anatole married the Princess Mathilde Bonaparte. The vast collections of works of art, with which the villa was filled, were sold by Prince Paul Demidoff.

A road which passes (left) the Villa Panciatichi, with the old tower of the Agli, its owners in the XIV. c., and (left) the church of S. Cristofano a Nuvoli, with a colossal fresco of S. Christopher in its portico, leads to Peretola, where Florentine burghers had their jousting-field in the XIII. c., and where pink lilies of the valley may be found in spring. The Villa Petrucci Bargagli occupies the site of an old castle of the Spini.

Giusto Utens, Villa Poggio a Caiano , c. 1599–1602

From Peretola a dull road (tram from the Piazza S. Maria Novella, a branch from that to Prato) to the left leads (about 10 miles from Florence) to the imposing Villa of Poggio a Cajano, which was built by Giuliano di San Gallo for Lorenzo the Magnificent, and became one of his favourite retreats. Hither Lorenzo came frequently for the sake of his favourite amusement of hawking, accompanied by Pulci, who cared little for the diversion. “La Caccia con Falcone” [The hunter with falcon] describes him as missing, and having hidden himself in a wood to make poetry. He planted an islet in the Ombrone, flowing below, with many rare flowers.

The vault of the great saloon was considered by Vasari to be the largest of modern times. It was painted by order of Leo X. with frescoes by the great masters of the period, intended as allegorical of the glories of the Medici, viz.:—

Jacopo Pontormo, Lunette fresco, 1519-21

The lunette is described by Mr. Berenson as “the most appropriate mural decoration now remaining in Italy.”

The rooms (with little of the original furniture remaining) are to be seen in which the Grand-Duke Francesco I. died, October 19, 1587, and on the following day his wife, the beautiful Bianca Cappello. The story of Bianca is a typical romance. Daughter of a proud Venetian noble, Bartolommeo Cappello, she eloped with Pietro Bonaventuri, a young Florentine, by whom she was already with child, and she was married to him at his mother’s house in the Piazza S. Marco at Florence. Here she attracted the favour of Francesco de’ Medici, eldest son of Duke Cosimo, and he made her his mistress. Bonaventuri was shortly after murdered by bravoes in the employment of the Ricci, with a daughter of whose house he had intrigued. After the accession of Francesco to the throne, and the death of his duchess, Giovanna of Austria, Bianca was married to the Grand-Duke in the Palazzo Vecchio, June 5, 1578, and enjoyed her dearly bought honours for eight years, until she perished with her husband, under strong suspicions of poison, during a visit of the Grand-Duke’s brother and successor, Ferdinando, who had always been the bitterest enemy of Bianca. Francesco was buried with all pomp in the family mausoleum at S. Lorenzo, but Bianca, wrapped in a sheet; was thrown into the common grave for the poor, under the nave of the same church.

It has an external staircase up which horses can go.

The low-lying Park, with its ugly rows of poplars, damp shrubberies and summer-houses on the Ombrone, is greatly admired by the Florentines, but will not be thought worth a visit by foreigners, though there is an old proverb which says

A breed of buffaloes, afterwards common in Italy, was first introduced at Poggio a Cajano by Lorenzo de’ Medici.

Giuseppi Zocchi, Villa Petraia, c. 1744

About four miles from the Porta al Prato (most easily reached by bus 28 from Firenze Hub Montelungo near stazione S. Maria Novella, or by rail, the station of Castello being close by) is the charming royal Villa of Petraja, once belonging to Palla Strozzi. It was adorned by Buontalenti. One tower only remains of the castle of the Brunelleschi, its ancient owners, who triumphantly defended it in 1364 against the Pisans and English under Sir J. Hawkwood, then fighting against Florence. The gardens, on the southern slope of the Apennines, are most lovely. A fountain by Tribolo is surmounted by a Venus of Giovanni da Bologna: it is pronounced by Vasari to be “the most beautiful of all fountains.” The loggie are adorned with frescoes by Il Volterrano. Here Scipione Ammirato, under the eyes of Cosimo and his son Ferdinando, wrote that history of Florence which procured him the name of the New Livy. The gardens have not improved since the palace was occupied by Madame (“la bella Rosina”) Mirafiore.

High in the hill above Petraja sits the royal villa of La Topaja, which Cosimo I. gave as a residence to Benedetto Varchi, who wrote his history there, and during his lifetime called the villa Cosmiano, in honour of his patron.

Ciusto Utens, Castello, c. 1599–1602

The lower slope of the hills beneath Petraja is clothed by the lovely woods and gardens of the famous Medicean (now royal) villa of Castello (formerly Il Vivaio), bought from the Della Stufa by Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de’ Medici in 1477, and ever after a favourite residence of his family. Its gardens were decorated by Tribolo for Cosimo I., who died here of a malignant fever, April 1, 1574. It is situated just above the main road. The central fountain in the gardens has a group of Hercules and Antaeus by Ammannati. A smaller fountain is attributed to Donatello. Walks and drives ascend through woods of flowering shrubs to an upper terrace whence there is an exquisite view of the plain, its tender green and grey broken by dark spires of cypresses, and backed by ranges of pale violet mountains. The little church of S. Michele and its cypresses forms a picturesque feature between Castello and Petraja. Here lived Caterina Sforza during the last seven years of her dramatic life with her son Giovanni delle Bande Nere, not without bitter anxieties. Ferdinand III. gave it several pictures, since removed to the National Collections: a picture by Cigoli and a crucifix by G. da Bologna are still in the church. The Jesuit father, Jacopo Cortese, better known as Borgognone (not Ambrogio), the battle-painter, was a native of Castello.

Nearby is the Villa L’Ulivaccio, formerly belonging to the Gondi family; Ponte a Rifredi, named from a bridge over the torrent Terzolle; S. Stefano in Pane, where the church, which contains some good pictures, bears the arms of the Tornabuoni family, its former owners; the Villa Guicciardini, now a distillery; and Il Sodo, an old house with a tower, which belonged to the Strozzi.

The Via di Castello leads to the palace, passing the gates of the Villa Corsini or Il Lepre dei Rinieri, an imposing edifice by Antonio Ferri, the principal architect of the Corsini palace at Florence. In 1460 the property was purchased from the Strozzi by the Rinieri, whose name it long bore. There is a noble old garden and cypress avenue. An inscription on the front of the palace records the residence and death there, in 1649, of Robert Dudley, son of Queen Elizabeth’s Earl of Leicester, famous for his travels and inventions. In his latter years he settled at Florence, where his ingenuity as a shipbuilder and mathematician attracted the notice of Cosimo II., whose wife, the Grand-Duchess Maddalena, made him her chamberlain. Her brother, the Emperor Ferdinand II., created him Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland in the Holy Roman Empire, in 1620. He was employed by Cosimo II. in draining the marshes between Pisa and the sea, to which Leghorn owes its prosperity. He wrote here his famous naval work, Dell’ Arcano del Mare di D. Roberto Dudleo, Duca di Northumbria e Conte de Warwick, 1646–7. Dying in his villa, he was buried in the little neighbouring monastery of S. Giovanni Evangelista at Boldrone, where Giuliano Ricci, the learned nephew of Macchiavelli, was also buried in 1574. He left seven daughters and five sons by his wife Alice Leigh,¹²Of the Leighs of Stoneleigh. whom he had long deserted.

Near Castello, on the outskirts of the hills, is the beautiful villa of Quarto, which belonged to the Grand-Duchess Marie of Russia. On the Via di Serezzano is the Villa Le Bracche or Bellagio, which belonged to the beautiful Camilla Martelli, who became the second wife of Cosimo 1. Their daughter Virginia, Duchess of Este, inherited the villa from her mother.