In the Piazza Goldoni, where the Ponte Carraia springs off, several streets meet, best of them and busiest of them being that Via della Vigna Nuova which one should miss few opportunities of walking along, for here is the palazzo--at No.

20--which Leon Battista Alberti designed for the Rucellai.

The Rucellai family's present palace, I may say here, is in the Via della Scala, and by good fortune I found at the door sunning himself a complacent major-domo who, the house being empty of its august owners, allowed me to walk through into the famous garden--the Orti Oricellari--where the Platonic Academy met for a while in Bernardo Rucellai's day.

A monument inscribed with their names has been erected among the evergreens.

Afterwards the garden was given by Francis I to his beloved Bianca Capella.