ITALIAN VILLAS 
gardens at Verona, probably better known to sight- 
seers than any others in northern Italy. In spite of all 
their charm, however, the dusky massing of their old 
cypresses, and their winding walks along the cliff-side, 
the Giusti gardens preserve few traces of their original 
design, and are therefore not especially important to 
the student of Italian garden-architecture. More inter- 
esting in this connection is the Villa Cuzzano, about seven 
miles from Verona, a beautiful old house standing above 
a terrace-garden planted with an elaborate parterre de 
broderie. Behind the villa is a spacious court bounded 
by a line of low buildings with a central chapel. The 
interior of the house has been little changed, and is an 
interesting example of north Italian villa planning and 
decoration. The passion of the Italian architects for 
composition and continuity of design is seen in the 
careful placing of the chapel, which is exactly on an 
axis with the central saloon of the villa, so that, stand- 
ing in the chapel, one looks across the court, through 
this lofty saloon, and out on the beautiful hilly landscape 
beyond. It was by such means that the villa-architects 
obtained, with simple materials and in a limited space, 
impressions of distance, and sensations of the unex- 
pected, for which one looks in vain in the haphazard 
and slipshod designs of the present day. 
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