ITALIAN VILLAS 
of the surrounding landscape which characterizes the 
great gardens of the Campagna. 
Just across the lake, in the deep shade of the wooded 
cliffs beneath the Pizzo di Torno, lies another villa still 
more steeped in the Italian garden-magic. This is the 
Villa Pliniana, built in 1570 by the Count Anguissola of 
Piacenza, and now the property of the Trotti family of 
Milan. The place takes its name from an intermittent 
spring in the court, which is supposed to be the one 
described by Pliny in one of his letters ; and it is farther 
celebrated as being the coolest villa on Como. It lies 
an a small bay on the east side of the lake, and faces 
due north, so that, while the villas of Cernobbio are 
bathed in sunlight, a deep green shade envelops it. 
The house stands on a narrow ledge, its foundations 
projecting into the lake, and its back built against the 
almost vertical wooded cliff which protects it from the 
southern sun. Down this cliff pours a foaming moun- 
tain torrent from the Val di Calore, just beneath the 
peak of Torno; and this torrent the architect of the Villa 
Pliniana has captured in its descent to the lake and car- 
ried through the central apartment of the villa. 
The effect produced is unlike anything else, even in 
the wonderland of Italian gardens. The two wings of 
the house, a plain and somewhat melancholy-looking 
structure, are joined by an open arcaded room, against 
the back wall of which the torrent pours down, over 
stonework tremulous with moss and ferns, gushing 
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