SEVEN LITTLE JOURNEYS IN TUSCANY ANNA R. SHELDON M. MOYCA NEWELL OVER ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS CHARTERHOUSE PRESS NEW YORK 1904 COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY M. M. NEWELL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED SCHLUETER PRINTING COMPANY NEW YORK To Frances Cecilia Newell WE DEDICATE THIS BOOK...

W HY the Medici family assumed the well-known device of red balls on a field of gold, is one of the vexed questions of heraldic history. Some hold that as the saints, Cosmo and Damian, who appear so often in the votive pictures of the Medici, were also patron saints of medicine and surgery, and because the name of the family signifies physicians, the balls may suggest pills ( palle ). Others think that a cluster of balls, formerly the sign of money-lenders, was adopted as a device by Giovanni de

E VERY year Italy is thronged with thousands of travellers who are thoroughly familiar with the larger cities of Tuscany: Florence, Lucca, Siena, and Leghorn are crowded with visitors, while Florence has practically become the Italian home of English and American wanderers; they not only fill hotels, pensions, and apartments, but occupy many of the villas on neighbouring hillsides. Fiesole's terraces are converted into tea-gardens, and resound with Anglo-Saxon chaffer for straw fans and baskets.

Alinari Benozzo Gozzoli THE PROCESSION OF THE MAGI CHAPEL OF THE RICCARDI PALACE, FLORENCE...

M.M. Newell Giov. Pisano THE CAMPANILE, PRATO T HRICE had we been in Florence and never seen Prato, only twelve miles away. Many times had we noted in passing where the waters of her little river, the Bisenzio, join the Arno, and wished to follow its banks through the plain to the city whose fortunes and history are so identified with those of Florence. There was no good reason for not going to Prato; there are several ways of doing it—by diligence, tram, or steam; and Murray declares that half

W E made our first home in Florence with our good friend Signora V—— and her daughter. Our rooms were on the second piano , which meant three flights of uncompromising stone stairs, but once at the top our windows overlooked the piazza on one side, a pretty garden on the other, and gave us plenty of sunshine; moreover, we had a loggia, a very different matter from a balcony or gallery both in name and character, and from which we got charming views of the distant hills. Within was every creature

Alinari STEMMA IN THE COURTYARD, PALAZZO CENAMI, LUCCA...

O NE lucky day, as we were sauntering about Pistoja, some one said: "Let us go to Serravalle, and get more in touch with that stirring fellow, Castruccio Castracane, who seems to have filled this region with war's alarum, and left his name, if not more substantial marks, in every town in this part of Tuscany." We remember that he bribed Filippo Tedici with ten thousand golden florins, and so got possession of Pistoja and the traitor's daughter, Dialta, as his wife, and that their wedding festivi

Alinari Della Robbia MEDICI STEMMA OSPEDALE DEL CEPPO, PISTOJA...

A SPRING day comes suddenly in Val d'Arno when the air is a thought too warm and over-rich with languorous fragrance from myriad blossoms. Then thirst grows imperious for the uplands, for Tuscan hillsides clad with chestnut-trees overshadowing uncut grass, through which sweeps an eager breeze caught from the snow-capped Apennines. On such a day we recall Pistoja, once seen on our way southward from Bologna, and ever since haunting our minds like a sweet vision. We had crossed the watershed which

Alinari Fra Bartolommeo THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED, AND SAINTS CATHEDRAL, LUCCA...

O N St. Patrick's Day in the morning we left Florence, had a full day's sight-seeing in Pistoja, Groppoli, and Serravalle, and pushed on to Lucca the same evening, arriving about seven o'clock. Acting on sound British advices, we drove at once to the Albergo dell'Universo, a comfortable little inn occupying the first floor of the old Palazzo Arnolfo, where we had our belated dinner, took our ease before a cheerful open fire, and congratulated ourselves that at last we were in Lucca—a hope long d

B RANCOLI'S H ILL commands a view of the Serchio River and its extensive valley, called the Garfagnana, which lies between the Apennines, defining the northern boundary of Tuscany, and the Alpi Apuane range, which follows the direction of the coast, and contains several lofty peaks, the highest rising over six thousand feet. The principal town and capital of the Garfagnana region is Barga, situated thirteen hundred feet above the sea, and containing, we had learned, an interesting church and sev