356 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



372. THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE ASCENT, VILLA D'ESTE, CERNOBBIO. 



mountains in successive ridges, the misty clouds floating over the snowy peaks, the gorge-like 

 chasms torn in the cliff walls of the lake these are the features which linger in the mind, 

 obliterating as somewhat trivial the cube dots with which man has sprinkled so vast a 

 landscape. 



Nature having evidently created the Italian lakes of to-day as the earthly paradise of 

 honeymooning couples, the traveller unprovided with as good companionship must content 



himself with these 

 inanimate beauties o f 

 nature. 



The villa d'Este, 

 some two and a half 

 miles from Como, is 

 now a hotel, but the 

 garden remains as an 

 instance of late work, 

 striking to those to 

 whom the earlier 

 examples are not known. 

 There is a screen wall 

 facing the lake com- 

 posed of two halves, 

 each with an apsidal 

 recess ten yards across, 

 with flanking walls of 

 six yards wide on each 

 side (Fig. 372). The 

 architectural and sculp- 

 tural detail is inferior, 

 373 VILLA CARLOTTA, ON LAKE COMO. and the main interest is 



