eBooks Base 2000

At the portal of the villa we
found many carriages in waiting, for the Prince Doria throws open the
grounds to all comers, and on a pleasant day like this they are probably
sure to be thronged. We left our carriage just within the entrance, and
rambled among these beautiful groves, admiring the live-oak trees, and
the stone-pines, which latter are truly a majestic tree, with tall
columnar stems, supporting a cloud-like density of boughs far aloft, and
not a straggling branch between there and the ground. They stand in
straight rows, but are now so ancient and venerable as to have lost the
formal look of a plantation, and seem like a wood that might have
arranged itself almost of its own will. Beneath them is a flower-strewn
turf, quite free of underbrush. We found open fields and lawns,
moreover, all abloom with anemones, white and rose-colored and purple and
golden, and far larger than could be found out of Italy, except in
hot-houses. Violets, too, were abundant and exceedingly fragrant.


Pages:
192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216