This is one of several views of the Apennines on the road between Florence and Bologna drawn on Towne’s journey back to England. The composition, with its overhanging tree illuminated by the sun, and a mountainous valley beyond, recalls the sketch Towne made at 5:00 am at Tivoli about three months earlier (FT258). This Apennines view is also a morning view, as Towne has made a point of showing the effects of the sun rising from the east as he made his way north to Bologna. The journey to Bologna took about fourteen and a half hours,¹ and if Towne was attempting it in a single day he would have had to start out very early in the morning. Given its place in the sequence of views, the sketch must depict the countryside fairly near Florence—at any rate within fifteen miles of it (see FT303)—and was perhaps Towne’s first stop on the road having left the city.

The buildings that Towne shows in the mid-ground may well be part of the Medici estate of Pratolino, six miles outside Florence. John “Warwick” Smith, Towne’s travelling companion, considered it the main object of interest on this part of the road. He wrote that between Florence and Cafaggiolo (about fifteen miles or three hours’ travel north)

the road passes by Pratolino, a country palace of the grand dukes of Tuscany. It was built by Francis de Medicis. The gardens and the water-works are the objects most worthy of attention: but they contain a variety of grottos, cascades, and statues; amongst others, a colossal of the Apennine, near sixty feet high.²

This is a fairly general description, perhaps based on Dutens’s Journal of Travels³ rather than Smith’s own experience; if he and Towne wished to reach Bologna in a day, perhaps they had no time to make detours. On the other hand, the palace contained much to interest passing artists. Burnet listed the “vast collection of pictures, statues, cabinets, and other curiosities, which must needs amaze everyone that sees them; the plate, and in particular the gold plate and the great coach, are all such extraordinary things”.⁴