Full text: Volume (2)

446 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
SIGNA—LA VERNIA—CAMALDOLI—VALLOMBROSA. 
BOUT two hours’ drive from Florence, on the way to 
APisa, is Signa, situated where the hills almost meet, on 
either side of the Arno, and near where the river was at one 
time choked by an enormous mass of rock, called the Golfolina, 
which occasioned inundations of the Arno, Ombrone, and 
Bisenzio, over the whole country. The legend accounts for its 
disappearance by a thirteenth labour of Hercules ; but Villani, 
in his history, relates that, in early days, ordinary mortals were 
employed to break it up. 
Leaving Florence by the Pisan highway from the Porta 
San Frediano, the first village is Legnaia, with its old hexagonal 
church of San Quirico. The tall Italian reed grows plentifully 
behind the walls which line the road, and the villages are, as 
usual, in long streets, or rows of houses on either side. The 
Ponte a Greve—a picturesque bridge constructed in early 
times by Pisan prisoners—crosses the River Greve ; on it is a 
large tabernacle, containing a fresco of much beauty, and 
apparently belonging to the fourteenth century. The Ma¬ 
donna, in a crimson dress with a dark mantle, has the Child 
on her knee, who is clothed in red and white, with a green 
sash—the colours of Faith, Hope, and Charity; he raises 
his hand to bless ; St. Lawrence, a beautiful youth, and St. 
John the Baptist, who turns towards him, are on one side ; 
on the other, St. Peter with his keys, and another saint. 
On the slope of the hills to the left is Scandicci in Alto, 
where is the Villa of the Altoviti Sangaletti, now belonging to
	        
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