336
CHAPTER XXIV.
VILLA STIBBERT—MEDICEAN VILLA OF CAREGGI.
THE road to the left beyond the Ponte Rosso is the Vie
Vittorio Emanuele, and the first villa of importance in
this direction is that of the Fabbricotti, once a country residence
of the Princes Strozzi. It stands conspicuously on an eminence
surrounded by an Italian garden laid out in terraces, anc
adorned with busts. A few steps farther on the opposite side
of the road is a small tabernacle containing the bust of Sant
Antonino, the good Bishop of Florence in the fifteenth century
four tall cypresses rise behind it, and commemorate the site of
the episcopal palace, in which the saint spent many years of
his life, and where he died. During the siege of Florence o
1529-30 the building was razed to the ground.
A lane to the right, winding up a short but steep ascent
leads to the Villa Stibbert. All the undulating land betweer
the Via Vittorio Emanuele and the Via Bolognese bears the
name of Mont’ Ughi, from a certain Captain Ugo, who left
Rome some time in the twelfth century in quest of adventures,
or to make his fortune. Arriving with his band of armed
followers in the vicinity of Florence, he wasted the whole
country, and, finally, established himself on this height, where
he built his castle, and where, in modern days, an English
gentleman, Mr. Stibbert, has converted two farmhouses into a
beautiful villa. The story of Ugo is preserved in a fresco
beneath a Loggia adjoining the house, painted by the Floren-
tine artist Bianchi. From this Loggia a beautiful view may be