Louis XII., who had been the guest of the count’s grandfather, speaking of the sumptuousness of the palace in Vialata, said that it surpassed that of his own. And the palace of Fieschi was in fact a kingly residence. The annalists tell us that the hill of Carignano,[29] on which it stood, was adorned with fifty villas, houses and gardens. The principal of these were the palace of Madonna Marisla, the mother of Cardinal Sauli, those of Nicolò, Giovanni Battista and Giuliano Sauli, and the houses of Pietro Negrone and Rolando Ferrari. From the summit of this hill you have a commanding view of the city, and of the port crowded with a forest of masts; the villas of Albaro are spread out before you; gardens and palaces cover the slopes of gentle declivities, or are scattered along the sides of the mountains which, swelling skyward, make at once a rampart and a diadem for Genoa. Valleys and slopes of marvellous beauty attract the eye towards the shore line, fringed with orange gardens, of Nervi and Recco, until Portofino, with its wave-washed rocks, closes on that side the charming basin of the gulf; while westward lie the bewitching shores of Voltri, Albissola and Savona, closed in the long prospective by Cape Noli standing boldly in the face of the sea; and throughout the wide horizon the waving surface is white with cities, castles and villages, which are garlanded round with orchards and olive groves, reflecting their verdure in the crystal mirror of the Mediterranean. In the centre of this smiling scene, roofed with a sky yet more bewitching than the landscape, rose the palace of Count Fieschi, faced with alternate slabs of white and black marble, crowned with two grand towers, and decorated with emblems and statues on its front and sides. In the _Fogliazzi Notarili_, which are preserved in the city library, there is an instrument dated March 30th, 1468 executed by Luca and Matteo Fieschi, sons of Daniel and Ginevrina Fieschi, from which we learn that in front of the palace there lay an open lawn extending towards the sea, that the villas and orchards of the estate covered the whole space as far as San Giacomo. On the east, west and south the grounds were bounded by public streets, and on the north lay the farms of Francesco del Monte and of the heir of Oberto Della Rovere. Subsequently to the date of this instrument, Bartolomeo Fieschi added villas and fields to this estate; but on the southern side it suffered some detriment from the opening of stone quarries by the government for which the Doge Battista Fregoso paid damages in 1479.