LOMBARD VILLAS 
out again beneath the balustrade of the loggia, where 
it makes a great semicircle of glittering whiteness in 
the dark-green waters of the lake. The old house is 
saturated with the freshness and drenched with the 
flying spray of the caged torrent. The bare vaulted 
rooms reverberate with it, the stone floors are green 
with its dampness, the air quivers with its cool incessant 
rush. The contrast of this dusky dripping loggia, on 
its perpetually shaded bay, with the blazing blue waters 
of the lake and their sun-steeped western shores, is one 
of the most wonderful effects in sensation that the Italian 
villa-art has ever devised. 
The architect, not satisfied with diverting a part of 
the torrent to cool his house, has led the rest in a fall 
down the cliff immediately adjoining the villa, and has 
designed winding paths through the woods from which 
one may look down on the bright rush of the waters. 
On the other side of the house lies a long balustraded 
terrace, between the lake and the hanging woods, and 
here, on the only bit of open and level ground near the 
house, are the old formal gardens, now much neglected, 
but still full of a melancholy charm. 
After the Villa Pliniana, the other gardens of Como 
seem almost commonplace. All along both shores are 
villas which, amid many alterations, have preserved 
traces of their old garden-architecture, such as the 
Bishop of Como’s villa, south of Leno, with its baroque 
saints and prophets perched along the garden-balus- 
18 213 
