364 
THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
overhanging mountains. White smoke rolling away from burning woods high up on the 
hillsides reveals a great crater of fire outlining the adjacent ridges. There are two veritable 
gorges of fire, crimson streaks, like clean cuts in the rounded flank of the mountain. The 
Borromean Islands, swimming like the black masses of great warships on a dark sea, are 
repeated by still deeper hued reflections on the rippled water, driven by the chill wind sweeping 
the surface of the lake. Isola Bella especially attracts attention, as, like a huge ship with 
successive decks, it rises with diminishing terraces, a blunt-ended island massive as a barge. 
Stresa may very W'ell be selected as the most convenient point on the shores of Lago 
^^^S^tore from which to visit the islands. A climb up the back of Stresa will give a dominating 
view over this portion of the lake, with these two islands and the Isola de Pescatori in the 
foreground. Close at hand is Baveno, above which the gashed cliffs reveal the vastness of the 
output of red and grey granite, shipped to adorn the world cities of to-day. 
The Isola Madre is a park-like island, W'ell wooded from water edge to summit. The 
house, a somewhat oblong and rigid block, does not present its best face to the visitor. At the 
382- — ISOLA BELLA : THE RESERVOIR, TERRACED WITH GARDENS. 
back it has an advanced wing with a loggia of local character, constructed of granite, slender 
and striking in effect. There are terraces on the lake approach, but otherwise all is in the English 
garden style and provides no setting for the house. There are many rare trees, specimens dear 
to the heart of the gardener. The house close at hand is seen to be on a considerable scale, 
three floors in height, with an attic W'hose windows are set between the large corbels of the 
cornice in the Genoese fashion. 
Of the Isola Bella it is not so easy to speak. It is sui generis, and silences the critic by the 
interest of its personality. Count Vitaliano Borromeo, who died in 1690, transformed the 
barren, rocky island, on which were only a church and a few' cottages, by erecting the palace 
and laying out the gardens. It has never been completed, and, though there is a model in the 
palace of the whole scheme, it is not easy to arrive at a fair conclusion as to the efifect of the 
original idea had it been carried out. There is no doubt that the present palace is not only 
far too large for the island, but that it also dwarfs the fine Italian garden in the same way 
