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364 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



overhanging mountains. White smoke rolling away from burning woods high up on the 

 hillsides reveals a great crater of fire outlining the adjacent ridges. There are two veritable 

 gorges of fire, crimson streaks, like clean cuts in the rounded flank of the mountain. The 

 Borromean Islands, swimming like the black masses of great warships on a dark sea, are 

 repeated by still deeper hued reflections on the rippled water, driven by the chill wind sweeping 

 the surface of the lake. Isola Bella especially attracts attention, as, like a huge ship with 

 successive decks, it rises with diminishing terraces, a blunt-ended island massive as a barge. 



Stresa may very well be selected as the most convenient point on the shores of Lago 

 Maggiore from which to visit the islands. A climb up the back of Stresa will give a dominating 

 view over this portion of the lake, with these two islands and the Isola de Pescatori in the 

 foreground. Close at hand is Baveno, above which the gashed cliffs reveal the vastness of the 

 output of red and grey granite, shipped to adorn the world cities of to-day. 



The Isola Madre is a park-like island, well wooded from water edge to summit. The 

 house, a somewhat oblong and rigid block, does not present its best face to the visitor. At the 



382. ISOLA BELLA : THE RESERVOIR, TERRACED WITH GARDENS. 



back it has an advanced wing with a loggia of local character, constructed of granite, slender 

 and striking in effect. There are terraces on the lake approach, but otherwise all is in the English 

 garden style and provides no setting for the house. There are many rare trees, specimens dear 

 to the heart of the gardener. The house close at hand is seen to be on a considerable scale, 

 three floors in height, with an attic whose windows are set between the large corbels of the 

 cornice in the Genoese fashion. 



Of the Isola Bella it is not so easy to speak. It is sui generis, and silences the critic by the 

 interest of its personality. Count Vitaliano Borromeo, who died in 1690, transformed the 

 barren, rocky island, on which were only a church and a few cottages, by erecting the palace 

 and laying out the gardens. It has never been completed, and, though there is a model in the 

 palace of the whole scheme, it is not easy to arrive at a fair conclusion as to the effect of the 

 original idea had it been carried out. There is no doubt that the present palace is not only 

 far too large for the island, but that it also dwarfs the fine Italian garden in the same way 



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