AT VILLA D’ESTE IN THE TWILIGHT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 756, 31 August 1929, Page 26

AT VILLA D’ESTE IN THE TWILIGHT

Water, silver, green-glia ting, ten- ; derly roseate; -water, falling, cascading, dancing, swirling skyward in dag-ger-straight shafts; water, murmuring, singing, creating silver music, rushing here from the arms of a mischievous little Pah, and there from the feet of a slight dreamy muse. Here again it pours from under the exquisite sculptured head of a Titan, whose-broad shoulders hold the miniature fountains. This is villa d’Este in the twilight! Trees stand sword-straight, hushed a little, as though spent with the afternoon’s heat. Cypresses, gigantic and darkly green; slight, graceful, dust-green palms; friendly plane- J trees, generous with their widelythrown shade; olive- trees, singular, ! grotesque, compelling With their ay-j rested branches; trees perched along zig-zagging paths, standing in regal solitude here and there on the lawns, belting the darkened walls of the magnificent villa. The vine-trees slope downward as though bent on reaching some invisible abyss. Planted along stately wide avenues, other trees carry their- branches like reliefs and frescoes on some old cathedral wall. These trees are dignified and versed' in many a bygone elegance; they .seem to remember the begemmed histories of the Villa, the passionate gesture, the fierce stiletto . . . This is Villa d’Este, in the twilight! Terraces screened by fountains; palm-shadowed corners where some great sculptor’s fantasy has called white marble into the harmonies of statuary; worn, flower-bordered steps, running here,, there and everywhere, all leading to the gracious balconies, along the upper story of the Villa; nooks and corners, where the rosemarble sedilia grows into radiance and suggests a spell of well-earned leisure; swards, green as emerald and soft as velvet; a rock garden here, a miniature maze there. Terraces again, and yet again; climbing them, you begin to appreciate the royal sweep of the Campagna hills. This is Villa d’Este in the twilight! Tread gently along the paths in the twilight. For the old story of the d’Este begins to breathe in the falling waters, in the hushed foliage of the trees, in the carven marble, and the exotic flower beds. A story of passion and elegance, of strength and beauty; of fiery colour dissolving now into the tints most beloved by the old Villa —green so dark that you mistake it for black and rose so pale that you accept it for white. And so, cradled by dark hushSn trees, lulled by the silver music of ever-running water, Villa. d’Este glides into twilight! V.O.S.