VILLA CICOGNA 



Throughout Northern Italy, from Piedmont to Venetia, notwith- 

 standing the comparative flatness of so much of the country, villas are 

 to be found wherever a suitable site presents itself. On the low grounds 

 the country-house is more frequently met with than the maison de 

 plaisance, and it is not until we get among the foot-hills or the lakes that 

 the latter preponderates. 



In the immediate neighbourhood of the larger cities, especially of 

 Milan, Turin, Venice, the pure pleasure-house naturally is found in 

 greater numbers, but in recent years there has been a tendency to 

 abandon these in favour of the villas that line the shores of the great 

 lakes. This is the more to be regretted, for many of them were of 

 exceptional interest, as may be seen by reference to Marc-Antonio Dal 

 Re's engravings of Castellazzo, with their accompanying description in 

 verse, or his better-known " Ville di Delizia." The same may be said of 

 the villas so graphically shown in the " Novum Theatrum Pedemontii et 

 Sabaudias." Among these, could anything excel in ostentatious 

 magnificence the Villas II Valentino, della Regina, or Millefleurs, now, 

 alas, shorn of all their wondrous embellishments ? At Castellazzo 

 something still remains of the extensive gardens, showing, like many 

 another villa hereabouts, unmistakable signs of French influence. 



Another villa near Treviglio, also belonging to the great Visconti 

 family, was until quite recently yet more interesting. This was a 

 moated house, dating from the end of the seventeenth century, the 

 gardens of which were not on a large scale, owing to the somewhat 

 restricted site, but they made up for this by the richness of their 



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