old Gardens of Italy 2 7 



In 1476 the records of Varese tell, with great 

 wealth of detail, that the Duke of Milan, Galeazzo 

 Maria Sforza (whose wife was Bona, of Savoy), 

 used to come habitually to Bisuschio to hunt bears 

 in the neighbouring forests, and made his head- 

 quarters with the brothers Agostino and Antonio 

 Mozzoni, an extremely ancient family tracing its 

 origin to the Moccioni of Rome. The house and 

 gardens were constructed by order of Ascanio 

 Mozzoni, of Milan, a famous poet and savant of his 

 time, who, however, did not live to see the comple- 

 tion of the work. Angela Mozzoni, daughter of 

 Pietro — the last of the branch — married, in 1580, 

 Count Gian Pietro Cicogna, and thus brought this 

 magnificent estate into that family. At the begin- 

 ning of the sixteenth century the brothers Francesco 

 and Maino Mozzoni remodelled the villa and gave 

 it the form it has to-day, and which is typical of 

 Renaissance architecture in Lombardy. Campi di 

 Cremona, so well known all over Lombardy, and 

 at the neighbouring Villa Medici, at Frascarolo, 

 painted the external decorations of the porticos. 



VILLA CRIVELLI, INVERIGO. 



Inverigo is reached in one and a half hours by train 

 from Milan (North station). The villa crowns the 

 hill and is five minutes' walk from the station. 

 Visitors are not welcomed, but by walking through 



