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VILLA  STROZZI.
which  stands  on  a  height.  It  is  reached  by  an  easy  drive  from
Florence,  and  is  interesting  from  its  geological  formation  of
tertiary  deposits,  where  nummilites  are  found  ;  some  siliceous
fragmentary  portions,  which  take  a  high  polish,  are  used  in  the
manufacture  of  pietra  dura.
Pursuing  the  road  to  Florence,  the  Villa  called  Torre
Galli  or  Nerlaia  was  once  the  property  of  the  Nerli  family.
Another  edifice,  with  high  machicolated  walls,  was  the  Villa  of
Count  Galli  Tassi,  whose  statue,  as  the  benefactor  to  the
Hospital,  may  be  seen  in  the  little  cloister  of  Santa  Maria
Nuova  ;  the  villa  now  belongs  to  the  Marchese  Farinola,  the
grandson,  by  his  mother,  of  the  Marchese  Gino  Capponi.
This  building  once  afforded  a  refuge  to  the  heretical  Paterini,
to  which  sect  the  Nerli  themselves  belonged.  Nothing  now
remains  of  the  old  castle  but  the  solid  structure  of  the  external
walls.  It  is  at  this  present  time  inhabited  by  the  well-known
authoress,  Mademoiselle  de  Ramé,  who  publishes  under  the
assumed  name  of  Ouida.
After  passing  through  the  long  village  of  Legnaia,  whose
fields  supply  Florence  with  the  best  vegetables,  a  villa  belonging -
  to  the  Rinuccini  family  is  seen  to  the  right,  in  a  district
called  Soffiano.  In  the  church  above,  of  Upper  Soffiano,  were
recently  discovered  some  Giottesque  frescoes,  buried  under
whitewash.  The  high  tower  beside  it  was  that  of  the  Carducci,
the  patrons  of  the  church,  who  had  their  villa  in  the  vicinity.
In  the  plain  below,  a  small  villa  by  the  roadside  is  that  of
the  Artimini,  who,  in  the  commencement  of  the  fourteenth
century,  possessed  a  lordly  villa  between  Signa  and  the  Medicean -
  Palace  of  Poggio  a  Caiano,  near  which  is  still  the
family  burying-ground,  though  since  the  loss  of  their  villa  the
Artimini  have  been  obliged  to  lay  their  dead  in  Santo  Spirito.
The  two  brothers  who  now  represent  the  family  are  professors  of
chemistry  in  the  Florentine  University,  and  at  Pisa  ;  the  elder
has  devoted  much  of  his  time  to  agriculture,  and  philanthropic
endeavours  for  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the  poor.