Nearing the summit we see some picturesque peasant houses resembling Lombard farms, with long finely built arcades and a smaller row of arches above. A sudden turn in the road brings us in sight of the great Villa Ferdinanda. It would be difficult either in words, or by drawings, to give an adequate idea of the sense of size together with perfect proportion, of beauty with almost severe simplicity, which we receive on approaching; and it is with astonishment that we remember our first impression when looking up at it from the plain. Buontalenti would seem to have endeavoured to build a very characteristic Medicean villa; it has a beautiful staircase going up to the entrance in the manner of a suspended arch, there are the inevitable lions, and going into the great hall we pass through a charming arched recess. Yet the architect, by placing the villa above a wide grass slope and causing the walls to project at the base, and building the corners to resemble towers (two of which are only carried half-way up, forming terraces) recalled the feudal villa-castle of much earlier date. Unlike the usual Tuscan building, humble or pretentious, Artimino’s villa has no courtyard, but is built with long vaulted rooms running through at right angles which bear curious mediæval names. There is the saloon of “the Bodyguard,” that of “the Lion,” with three grated windows looking out over Poggio a Cajano, another of “the Bear,” with views over Montelupo and the Ambrogiana, while the entrance hall goes by the title of “the Wars.” The enormous size of the villa is perhaps its most striking feature—the rooms upstairs are all large and finely built with groined roofs and huge chimneypieces, some having no doors but only a round arch to separate them. Nothing mean is to be found in any part of the place—the banqueting halls and the servants’ rooms are equally fine and built on the same magnificent and simple scale. The architect had dreamed of a noble race of men who were to inhabit so sumptuous a palace.[82] FOOTNOTES: [81] _Op. cit._ See note p. 70. [82] Most of the facts are taken from a pamphlet, _Artiminius_, G. L. Passerini, printed (for private circulation only) in 1888, and from Repetti’s admirable _Dizionario Geografico Fisico Storico della Toscana_. Firenze, 1835. [Illustration: (Decorative wreath reading: FINIS.)] INDEX A Acciajuoli, Cardinal, induces Cosimo III, to imprison his nephew, 123. —— Dardano, 121. —— Donato, Governor of Corinth, 123. —— Francesco, strangled by order of the Sultan, 123. —— Neri, Duke of Athens, &c., 123. —— Niccola, gibbeted by Dante, 121. —— —— Grand Seneschal, builds Monte Guffone, 121; wins the heart of Catherine, widow of the Prince of Taranto, 121; fights the Turks in Greece, 121; trusted minister of Queen Joan of Naples, 122; Papal envoy to Milan, 122; death of, 122; builds the Certosa near Florence, 122; burial of, at the Certosa, 123, 143.