h
Our Lord between two angels in the manner of the della Robbia; but the
little town is delightful, full of stonecutters and sculptors, still at
work in their shops as they were in the great days of Michelangelo. Far
away behind the hill of cypresses Vincigliata still stands on guard, on
the hilltop Castel di Poggio looks into the valley of Ontignano and
guards the road to Arezzo and Rome. Here there is peace; not too far
from the city nor too near the gate, as I said: and so to Firenze in the
twilight.

NOTE.--_I have said little of the country places about Florence,
Settimo, the Certosa in Val d'Ema, the Incontro and such, because there
seemed to be too much to say, and I wanted to treat of them in a book
that should be theirs only. See my_ Country Walks Round Florence
(_Methuen_, 1908).

FOOTNOTES:

[129] This perhaps is open to criticism: there is a huge suburb of
course towards Prato, the other barriere are still fairly in the
country.

[130] Villani, _Cronica_, translated by R.E. Selfe (London, 1906), pp.
71-3, 97.

[131] Cf. Fortini and Sermini for instance. See Symonds' _New Italian
Sketches_ (Tauchnitz Ed.), p. 37.

XXVI. VALLOMBROSA AND THE CASENTINO, CAMALDOLI AND LA VERNA

I. VALLOMBROSA

There are many ways that lead from Florence to Vallombrosa--by the
hills, by the valley, and by rail--and the best of these is by the
valley, but the shortest is by rail, for by that way you may leave
Florence at noon and be in your inn by three; but if you go by road you
must set out at dawn, so that when evening falls you may hear the
whispering woods of the rainy valley Vallis Imbrosa at your journey's
end. That is a pleasant way that takes you first to Settignano out of
the dust of Via Aretina by the river. Thence you may go by the byways to
Compiobbi, past Villa Gamberaja and Terenzano, among the terraced vines
and the old olives, coming to the river at last at Compiobbi, as I said,
just under Montacuto with its old castle, now a tiny village, on the
road to the Incontro, that convent on the hilltop where, as it is said,
St. Francis met St. Dominic on the way to Rome. The Via Aretina, deep in
dust that has already whitened the cypresses, passes through Compiobbi
on its way southward and west; but for me I will cross the river, and go
once more by the byways through the valley now, where the wind whispers
in the poplars beside Arno, and the river passes singing gently on its
way. It is a long road fu