ITALIAN VILLAS 
sance little remains save the long terraces extending from 
each end of the house, the old flower-garden below one 
of these, and some bits of decorative sculpture incorpo- 
rated in the boundary- 
walls. The long tank or 
canal shown in Del Re’s 
print has been turned 
into an irregular pond 
with grass-banks, and 
the parterre de bwderie 
is now a lawn ; even the 
IRON GATES OF THE VILLA ALARIO 
(now visconti di saliceto) balustrade has been re- 
moved from the wall along the Naviglio. Still, the ar- 
chitectural details of the forecourt and the terraces are 
worthy of careful study, and the unusual beauty of the 
old villa, with its undisturbed group of dependencies, 
partly atones for the loss of its original surroundings. 
Many eighteenth-century country houses in the style 
of the Villa Visconti are scattered through the Milanese, 
though few have retained so unaltered an outline, or 
even such faint traces of their formal gardens. The 
huge villa of the Duke of Modena at Varese — now the 
Municipio — is a good example of the same architecture, 
and has a beautiful stone-and-iron balustrade and many 
wrought-iron balconies in the same style as those at 
Cernusco ; and its gardens, ascending the hillside behind 
the house, and now used as a public park, must once 
have been very fine. The Grand Hotel of Varese is 
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